Pakistan: Release Afghanistan’s frozen assets

Afghan Voice Agency(AVA)_Monitoring, Asim Iftikhar, a spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry, said at a press conference, that the frozen assets held in the US should be released urgently and “in a manner that would make it easier for the interim authorities to utilize this money.”

This comes after US officials said last week they had no plans to release Afghanistan’s foreign reserves, citing concerns the funds could end up in the hands of terrorists after the leader of al-Qaeda was killed in Kabul.

President Joe Biden’s administration froze $7 billion after the IEA took power last year. Earlier this year, Biden issued an order to split the money equally between the families of victims of the September 11 terror attacks and humanitarian aid for Afghans.

Iftikhar said that the release of Afghan assets “shouldn’t be done without strings attached.” He also noted that the US had provided a lot of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan over the past year.

Referring to the recent visit to Pakistan by US CENTCOM chief General Michael Kurilla, and other bilateral engagements, Iftikhar said that in addition to his country’s bilateral agenda, the two sides also discussed the situation in Afghanistan.