On Tuesday, the Biden administration froze $9.5 billion of Afghan reserves. To keep the cash away from the Taliban’s hand, the US administration has decided to freeze the accounts. The cash belonged to Da Afghanistan Bank which was blocked from being shipped to the war-torn nation.
The decision was reported by the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and personnel at the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control in The Washington Post. The administration official told the newspaper in a statement, “any central bank assets the Afghan government have in the United State will not be made available to the Taliban”.
Taliban remains on the list of ‘Specially Designated National’ as a result of this action from the US administration. The captured country by the Taliban will not be given access by any Afghan central assets kept in the US when the nation will need any financial sanctions. The sizable portion of the New York Federal Reserve and other US-based financial institutions have put the IMF estimate of Afghan Central Bank assets at $9.5 bill till April.
As per the reports, it was said that the US State Department and the White House had consulted before the action which the Biden administration was contemplating with other actions as well to pressure the Taliban.
