Demonstrators in Kabul on Saturday denounced President Joe Biden’s directive releasing $3.5 billion in Afghan assets held in the United States for the benefit of relatives of America’s 9/11 victims, claiming that the money belonged to Afghans instead of Americans.
Protesters who gathered outside Kabul’s magnificent Eid Gah mosque demanded that the United States compensate the tens of thousands of Afghans who had died in the country’s 20-year-old battle with the Taliban and other foreign forces.
Mr. Biden’s directive, which was signed on Friday, assigns an additional $3.5 billion in Afghan assets for humanitarian help to a trust fund that would be overseen by the United Nations and used to provide assistance to the Afghan people.
The country’s economy is on the verge of collapsing after international money ceased flowing into the country following the entry of the Taliban in the country in mid-August of this year.
Afghanistan’s Central Bank has called on Vice President Biden to change his decision and return the monies to it, claiming that the funds belonged to the Afghan people and not to any government, political party, or other groups in a statement released Saturday.
He also called Mr. Biden’s decision into doubt as being illegal.
In Farhadi’s words, “These reserves belong to the people of Afghanistan, not the Taliban… Biden’s decision is one-sided and does not comport with international law.” “There is no other government on the face of the planet that makes such expropriation decisions about another country’s reserves.”
Afghanistan has around $9 billion in assets in foreign countries, including $7 billion in the United States of America. Almost all of the remainder is concentrated in Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and Switzerland.
“What about our Afghan people who have made great sacrifices and hundreds of lives have been lost?” Abdul Rahman, the demonstration’s organizer, and a civil society activist, questioned.
Rahman stated that he intended to organize other demonstrations across the capital to express his displeasure with Mr. Biden’s decision. “Not the United States of America, but the Afghan people is the rightful owner of this money. Afghans have a legal right to do so “he explained.
Afghans were accused of being nasty and of stealing their money by the United States, according to banners in English that were misspelled.
Late Friday, Mohammad Naeem, a Taliban political spokesman, accused the Biden administration of displaying “the lowest level of humanity… of a country and a nation” in a tweet.
As a result of Mr. Biden’s Friday order, a social media firestorm erupted, with Afghans taking to Twitter to express their outrage at the fact that the United States had stolen their money. The fact that the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals, rather than Afghans, was constantly brought up in tweets.
“Let’s tell the world that #AfghansDidntCommit911 and that #BidenStealingAfgMoney!” wrote Obaidullah Baheer, a lecturer at the American University in Afghanistan and a social activist on Twitter.
Afghanistan’s warlords were instrumental in bringing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to the country after he was expelled from Sudan in 1996. Those same warlords would subsequently join forces with the United States-led coalition to topple the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in 2001.
However, it was Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar who refused to deliver over Bin Laden to the United States following the terrible September 11th attacks, which claimed the lives of thousands of people.
Nonetheless, some analysts turned to Twitter to express their concerns about Mr. Biden’s request.
President Obama’s directive to shift $3.5 billion away from Afghanistan was characterized as “heartless” by Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center, situated in Washington, D.C.
“It is wonderful that $3.5 billion in new humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan has been made available. Taking another $3.5 billion from the Afghan people and divert it elsewhere, on the other hand, is wrong and, to put it bluntly, cruel “He sent out a tweet.
The opposition to Mr. Biden’s directive, according to Kugelman, transcended Afghanistan’s huge political division, as well.
‘I can’t recall the last time I saw so many people with such wildly divergent worldviews come together in support of a US policy decision on Afghanistan,’ he wrote on Twitter.