Demanding that the Biden administration not confiscate Afghanistan’s assets

On January 13, Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations, warned that millions of Afghans are on the “verge of death,” urging the international community to release Afghanistan’s frozen assets and jump-start its banking system to avert economic and social collapse.

President's Biden's decision to confiscate $7 billion in assets from the Afghan people and set aside half of it to 9/11 victims is not a just decision. It will exacerbate the crisis in Afghanistan. The president should not decide to take half this money, which is not the Taliban's, at a time when millions are suffering from starvation and economic freefall.

Unfortunately, the president's plan to confiscate the other half of the funds for a U.S.-established "trust fund" for unspecified uses is not as humane as it sounds. Humanitarian experts, including the UN and leading humanitarian groups, begged the U.S. to unfreeze these Afghan Central Bank reserves to inject liquidity into the Afghan economy. It is the collapsing economy that is driving the humanitarian crisis and Biden starving the Central Bank will result in more starving Afghans. The US-established trust fund's may end up doing some good feeding some Afghans, but by starving Afghanistan of its national currency reserves this policy perpetuates the underlying crisis.