Biden orders splitting frozen Afghan fund between humanitarian aid and 9/11 victims’ families

Asia-Pacific, News, US February 12, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order on February 11 creating a possibility to split $7 billion Afghan funds into two parts, allocating half to the humanitarian aid for Afghanistan and keeping the second half for the families of the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks.

The executive order states that the U.S. administration would facilitate access to the $3.5 billion of the assets belonging to the Afghan Central Bank, Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB). The DAB funds are being held at the U.S. Federal Reserves in New York. The facilitation would benefit Afghan people in terms of humanitarian aid and help Afghanistan’s future.

The official statement released by the White House regarding the executive order states that “more than $3.5 billion in DAB assets would remain in the United States and are subject to ongoing litigation by U.S. victims of terrorism.”

The U.S. administration has imposed severe sanctions against the Taliban and the Haqqani Network that restricts the government to release the DAB funds directly to the interim Taliban government of Afghanistan.

Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and the U.S.’s chaotic evacuation from the country in August 2021, International institutions including the U.S. Federal Reserve’s froze Afghanistan Central Bank’s assets which accumulated to $10 billion. A major share of these assets, $7 billion was held by the U.S. Federal Reserves.

*^{Displaced families collect water during a harsh winter in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Image Credit: UNHCR/Andrew McConnell)}*

The Taliban has been repeatedly calling out to the U.S. administration and international institutions to release their funds to address the dire humanitarian crisis looming in Afghanistan for a long time and has become even more severe since the U.S. evacuation and the Taliban’s takeover.

Following the Taliban takeover in August 2021, the families of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks raised their concerns about the DAB assets. The families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks have repeatedly cited the ruling from the ‘Havlish vs Laden’ case from 2012. The case was named after Fiona Havlish, the plaintiff of the case and wife of a 9/11 victim who worked on the 101st floor of the South Tower and lost his life during the 9/11 attacks.

Federal Magistrate Judge issued a “Recommendation Report” stating that the plaintiffs and families of the 9/11 victims collectively be awarded damages in the amount of $6 billion.

The Taliban lashed out at the U.S. President’s Executive Orders about splitting the DAB funds. Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem said on Twitter, “The theft and seizure of money, which is held and frozen by the United States, belongs to the Afghan people. This act represents the lowest level of human and moral decay of a country and a nation.”

The previous Afghan government was 75% dependent upon international aid to run state affairs. Since the Taliban took control, many international governments and institutions cut off their financial support to Afghanistan causing the Afghan humanitarian crisis to worsen even more. The United Nations predicts that by the end of this year more than 96% of Afghans would fall under severe poverty bringing the country to the brink of famine.