Kabul, Afghanistan- The Taliban took to the streets on Monday to celebrate their one-year anniversary since they took over the country last year.
Just over a month after the official announcement that the United States (US) army would withdraw from Afghanistan, the Taliban took over the capital city, Kabul, on August 15, 2021.
The Afghan army’s swift collapse took the world by surprise, precipitating the fall of Kabul and sending tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers and their families into exile.
However, Afghanistan is in the midst of a medical crisis that is worsening by the day, exacerbated by an economy in freefall, the freezing of the country’s assets, and the drying up of hundreds of millions of dollars of aid that flowed into the country for two decades, because the Taliban has taken control.
To make matters worse, the White House on Monday ruled out releasing US$3.5 billion in funds held in the US back to Afghanistan’s Central Bank anytime soon, citing that Al Qaeda’s leadership had taken refuge in the heart of Kabul apparently with the protection of the Taliban government.
“Right now, we are looking at mechanisms that could be put in place to see to it that these US$3.5 billion in preserved assets make their way efficiently and effectively to the people of Afghanistan in a way that doesn’t make them ripe for diversion to terrorist groups or elsewhere,” said Ned Price, the State Department’s spokesperson.
The issue of the frozen money remains one of the most sensitive questions a year after US President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw the last American troops from Afghanistan, leading to the fall of the Western-backed government and the Taliban’s return to power. The White House has been acutely sensitive to the approach of the anniversary, anticipating that it would renew criticism of the chaotic American withdrawal and the restoration of a draconian regime of repression, especially targeting women and girls.
Meanwhile, Thomas West, the American government’s special representative for Afghanistan, said that American officials have engaged for months now with the Central Bank about how to shore up Afghanistan’s economy but have not secured persuasive guarantees that the money would not fall into terrorist hands.
“We do not have confidence that that institution has the safeguards and monitoring in place to manage assets responsibly, and needless to say, the Taliban’s sheltering of Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri reinforces deep concerns we have regarding diversion of funds to terrorist groups,” said West.
