KABUL (SW) – The US President Joe Biden’s move to split Afghanistan’s state reserves worth some $ 7 billion has been widely condemned.
A day earlier, US President Joe Biden signed a decree freeing $ 7 billion of Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves. Under the decree, $ 3.5 billion is earmarked for humanitarian assistance and the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, and another $ 3.5 billion for compensation to the relatives of the victims of the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
The US President’s decision has provoked national and international reactions.
In the first place, the Islamic Emirate criticized the issuance of this decree, calling it an inhumane decision. Mohammad Naeem, a spokesman for its political bureau in Qatar, wrote on Twitter: “The theft and seizure of money blocked by the United States shows the lowest level of human and moral depravity of a country and a nation.”
Human Rights Watch also issued a statement calling the decision “problematic” for Afghanistan. The agency stressed that the frozen money belonged to Afghans and should be allocated to Afghan citizens.
Meanwhile, a number of political analysts say that Joe Biden has no authority to issue the decree, which is contrary to international relations norms. Political analysts believe that paying compensation to the relatives of the victims of the 9/11 attacks in the United States via these funds is putting Afghan citizens in dire economic straits.
“This is a political excuse,” said Abdul Jabbar Akbari, a political analyst. “I think this compensation should have been taken from those who are the strategic economic partner of the United States or Saudi Arabia. These are the people who launched the 9/11 attacks.”
Weiss Naseri, another political analyst said the US President wants to get war reparations from the Afghans, and this is the biggest betrayal and persecution of the Afghan people. “Because the United States has been in Afghanistan for 20 years, if it wanted to receive war reparations or blame the Afghans for 9/11, they would have had to include it in the 2014 security pact.”
In addition to the global backlash over the US president’s decision, the decree has drawn sharp criticism from social media users as well. Social media users have stressed that the frozen monetary reserves do not belong to the government,but to the people of this country and hence must be returned to the citizens.
ENDS
