Washington will press ahead with talks on releasing billions of dollars in Afghanistan's foreign-held asset despite the late Al Qaeda leader's presence in Kabul and Washington's frustration with the pace – report
Dozens of prominent US and international economists, including Nobel Prize winners, have urged the US to release Afghanistan's reserves over the humanitarian crisis, saying that"the full $7 billion belong to the Afghan people."
This is despite the late Al Qaeda leader's presence in Kabul and Washington's frustration with the pace, according to three sources with knowledge of the situation, Reuters news agency reported on Monday. The core of the plan, which US officials have discussed with Switzerland and other parties, is to transfer billions in foreign-held Afghan central bank assets into a proposed Swiss-based trust fund.
Washington also stopped flying in hard currency, effectively paralysing Afghanistan's banking system, and froze $7 billion in Afghan assets in the US Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In February, Biden ordered half the sum set aside "for the benefit of the Afghan people." Other countries hold some $2 billion of Afghan reserves.