WASHINGTON, August 16, 2021 (AFP) – The Taliban will not have access to the Central Bank of Afghanistan’s currency reserves held in US accounts, government source Joe Biden said.
“Any central bank assets held by the Afghan government in the United States will not be available to the Taliban,” the source told AFP.
Without specifying the percentage held in the United States, the majority of Afghan BC’s currency reserves are not in Afghan territory, a source familiar with the subject told AFP.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Central Bank of Afghanistan’s gross reserves reached $9.4 billion at the end of April.
Afghanistan was under Taliban control on Monday after government forces collapsed and President Ashraf Ghani fled abroad. Thousands of people were trying to flee the country amid the uproar at Kabul airport.
The takeover of the Taliban comes after NATO withdrew its mission of 9,500 troops from Afghanistan, when Biden decided to withdraw his troops from the country.
Washington may also withhold aid to Afghanistan from multilateral creditors, such as the IMF and the World Bank, because it has other countries whose governments do not recognize it, such as Venezuela.
In June, the IMF issued the latest delivery of a $370 million loan to Afghanistan, which was approved in November to help support the economy in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the time, the IMF said that the Afghan government had kept its economic program on the right track, even though “security has worsened and uncertainty has increased, while peace talks between the government and the Taliban have stalled, and US troops and NATO have been on the right track.” Members plan. Withdraw by September.”
The World Bank has more than 20 ongoing development projects in Afghanistan and has provided $5.3 billion since May 2002, most of which is in the form of grants.
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