Aug. 18 2021 On Aug. 15, the U.S. government froze the Afghan government’s national reserves in U.S. bank accounts in an effort to prevent representatives of the Afghan Taliban from accessing the assets, the Washington Post reported, citing sources.
Figures reportedly show billions of dollars were involved. The decision was made by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and the State Department was involved in the discussions to take that step.
“The central bank of the Afghan government’s assets in the United States will not be provided to the Taliban,” the Washington Post reported, citing a U.S. government representative. ”
Bloomberg also reported that a U.S. government official confirmed on the 17th that the United States has frozen nearly $9.5 billion belonging to the central bank of Afghanistan assets.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Treasury Department stopped shipments of sealed money boxes scheduled for Afghanistan.
Ajimal Ahmadi, the governor of Afghanistan’s departing central bank, said he had been informed that dollars would no longer be shipped to Afghanistan. Ahmadi also said that almost all of the central bank’s reserves are outside the country. If the U.S. freezes smoothly, he estimates, “the Taliban will have only 0.1 percent of what is available.”
