Biden to Split Frozen Afghan Funds for 9/11 Victims, Relief

WASHINGTON — 

President Joe Biden is expected to issue an executive order on Friday to move some $7 billion of the Afghan central bank’s assets frozen in the U.S. banking system to fund humanitarian relief in Afghanistan and compensate victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a U.S. official familiar with the decision.

The order will require U.S. financial institutions to facilitate access to $3.5 billion of assets for the Afghan relief and basic needs. The other $3.5 billion would remain in the United States and be used to fund ongoing litigation by U.S. victims of terrorism, the official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision had not been formally announced.

International funding to Afghanistan was suspended and billions of dollars of the country’s assets abroad, mostly in the United States, were frozen after the Taliban took control of the country in mid-August.

The country’s long-troubled economy has been in a tailspin since the Taliban takeover. Nearly 80% of Afghanistan’s previous government’s budget came from the international community. That money, now cut off, financed hospitals, schools, factories and government ministries. Desperation for such basic necessities has been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as health care shortages, drought and malnutrition.

The official noted that U.S. courts where 9/11 victims have filed claims against the Taliban will also have to take action for the victims to be compensated.

The executive order is expected to be signed by Biden later on Friday.

The Taliban have called on the international community to release funds and help stave off a humanitarian disaster.

Afghanistan has more than $9 billion in reserves, including just over $7 billion in reserves held in the United States. The rest is largely in Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland and Qatar.

The Taliban are certain to oppose the split.

As of January the Taliban had managed to pay salaries of its ministries but was struggling to keep employees at work. They have promised to open schools for girls after the Afghan new year at the end of March, but humanitarian organizations are saying money is needed to pay teachers. Universities for women have reopened in several provinces with the Taliban saying the staggered opening will be completed by the end of February when all universities for women and men will open, a major concession to international demands.

The New York Times first reported on Biden’s coming order.

Deadline Nears for US on Seized Afghan Funds Sought By 9/11 Victims

Freeze it indefinitely, return it to Afghanistan or give it to 9/11 victims’ families? The Biden administration has until February 11 to tell a U.S. court what it thinks should happen to $7 billion of Afghan government funds currently frozen at the New York Federal Reserve.

Judges twice extended deadlines this year to give the government more time to sort out the legal logistics in the case, but for Andrew Maloney, a lawyer representing about 150 relatives of the 9/11 victims, the fate of the funds should have been decided “yesterday.”

“We’d like it to be done immediately,” Maloney told VOA. “We think it should be immediately put into an account that allows the court to make sure it is distributed evenly and fairly … to families who lost someone on 9/11.”

Others say the funds belong to the Afghan people and should be released to help mitigate economic and humanitarian crises in the country.

“Victims of 9/11 obviously have a legitimate suffering that they’re seeking to address here. We can’t make that the only factor in the decision. That’s a moral imperative, and it’s a practical one as well,” said Stephen Carter, an independent expert who leads the Afghanistan work at the London-based rights group Global Witness.

People in Afghanistan have protested against the freeze, and the U.N. secretary-general has called for a release of the funds.

FILE – Afghan laborers work at a brick factory in Deh Sabz, on the outskirts of Kabul, Sept. 26, 2021. With Afghan assets frozen in the U.S. and the world reluctant to recognize the Taliban, the country’s banking system has come to a halt.

“The function of Afghanistan’s central bank must be preserved and assisted, and a path identified for conditional release of Afghan foreign currency reserves,” Antonio Guterres said on January 13.

Even a group of U.S. lawmakers has called on President Joe Biden for a gradual release of the funds.

A bargaining chip?

The $7 billion frozen at the New York Federal Reserve is a mixture of cash, gold, bonds and other investments that were made by Afghanistan’s central bank before the Taliban retook power, according to former Afghan officials. Additionally, close to $2 billion of Afghanistan’s financial assets, including private banks’ liquidities, is frozen in European institutions.

“The reserves are a complicated issue,” a spokesperson at the State Department told VOA when asked why the U.S. government has not made a decision about the frozen funds.

The lawsuits by 9/11 victims’ families are one reason the case is complicated. Another is that the U.S. government is trying to ensure the Taliban, its former enemy, will not benefit from the assets.

U.S. military and Taliban fighters fought for almost two decades in Afghanistan, killing thousands. Even before the final U.S. soldier left Afghanistan last August, the Taliban took charge in Kabul despite U.S. warnings not to seize power by force.

“I think these funds are going to be a bargaining chip in the relationship with the Taliban, which I’m sure the U.S. government won’t give up very quickly or easily,” said Carter of Global Witness.

U.S. officials say they’re working in tandem with allies in denying the Taliban every financial incentive.

“We review these issues thoughtfully and in coordination with allies, partners and other countries where Afghan Central Bank reserves are located,” said the State Department spokesperson.

With more than $516 million in assistance pledged since August last year, the U.S. is now the largest humanitarian aid donor to Afghanistan. U.S. officials say they will continue helping the Afghan people and pressing the Taliban to form an inclusive government and respect women’s rights.

VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine contributed to this report.

US Military Victims of Iranian Attacks Ask Biden for Frozen Funds

More than 1,000 U.S. military veterans and family members of those killed or wounded in attacks by Iran and its proxies are calling on President Joe Biden to compensate the victims of Iranian attacks before releasing frozen funds as part of nuclear negotiations with Tehran.

In a letter to the president obtained by VOA News, veterans and military family members wrote late last week that while they share Biden’s “view that Iran must never be allowed to develop and acquire nuclear weapons,” they feel that releasing frozen funds should not be an option until all of the estimated $60 billion of outstanding terrorism judgments against Iran and its proxies are “fully satisfied.”

“In our view, Iran’s frozen funds should go first to the regime’s American victims before a single dollar goes to the regime itself,” they wrote.

The letter asks Biden to meet with some of those “directly affected by this issue” and support their “efforts to hold Iran responsible for the deaths and maiming of thousands of Americans.”

U.S. officials have said Iran-backed militias killed hundreds of U.S. troops in the Iraq war, a claim Iran has denied.

Iran claimed responsibility for a 2020 attack on an Iraqi base hosting international forces that wounded more than 100 American troops, and Iran-backed militias continue to target U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria with rockets and armed drones.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday the administration is committed to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and believes diplomacy is the best way to do that, but “time is running short.”

U.S. and European powers are currently in talks with Iran in Vienna over reviving a 2015 nuclear deal designed to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the accord and reimposed economic sanctions on Iran, blocking Tehran’s access to assets abroad.

Iran has asked the U.S. to unblock billions of dollars frozen by U.S. sanctions as a sign of goodwill. Last week, the U.S. Treasury allowed South Korea to send at least $63 million in overdue payments to an Iranian company, releasing a small portion of the Iranian assets frozen there by the sanctions.

The move appeared to be a step forward in nuclear negotiations in Vienna to rebuild trust between Iran and world powers and restore the 2015 deal.

South Korea’s Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun had visited the Austrian capital to meet with the U.S. special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, earlier this month.