Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claims responsibility for Ankara attack
British Defense Minister Grant Shapps: We are deploying RAF Typhoons to Poland
British Defense Minister Grant Shapps announces a 4 billion pound ($4.9 billion) deal to build attack submarines
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: We have waited 60 years at the doorstep of the European Union. We are no longer waiting.
Al Mayadeen correspondent: One civilian martyred, another injured by Saudi Arabia's armed forces in Saada, Yemen.
The Turkish authorities have banned media from broadcasting at the scene of an attempted terrorist attack that hit the capital near Parliament earlier.
An explosion and gunfire heard in Turkey’s capital Ankara near the parliament and the ministries.
US House 45-day stopgap funding bill with no aid for Ukraine gets enough votes.
Armenia quickly denied the allegations of killing an Azerbaijani soldier, saying the claim its forces had opened fire on Azerbaijani positions "does not correspond to reality".
Azerbaijan says a soldier was killed by a sniper on the Armenian border.

US tightens grip on much-needed Afghan funds, blames audit: Reuters

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Reuters
  • 21 Jul 2023 13:10
  • 2 Shares
  • x

The US Treasury claims that the audit into Afghanistan's Central Bank showed "inadequacy" despite not disclosing the audit data to the public.

  • US tightens grip on much-needed Afghanistan funds, blames audit
    An Afghan woman sits next to her children on Kabul streets in the cold winter as she seeks alms from people passing by in January 2022 (AFP)

The United States conditioned that in order for Afghanistan to access its sovereign funds previously frozen in Switzerland, the US-destroyed country must replace current officials in charge of the central bank with "professional bankers" and introduce financial "reforms", Reuters reported on Friday citing senior US Treasury officials.

Following an American-funded audit of the country's central bank, Washington decided not to allow the return of $3.5 billion belonging to Afghanistan, which are frozen based on US orders in a Geneva-based trust fund.

The results of the audit were not released nor disclosed, sparking criticism over the transparency of the decision that will critically affect the country, while some experts considered that this proves that Washington's move is politically driven and not based on concrete facts.

Read more: UNICEF: Almost 16 million children sleep hungry in Afghanistan

The United States has prohibited Afghanistan's access to $7 billion dollars of its foreign assets, half of which were seized by the US Federal Reserve while the rest is frozen in a Swiss account. US President Joe Biden has been making efforts since to illegally hand over half of the frozen funds in New York out to 9/11 American victims.

Following Biden's attempts, the Taliban slammed Washington's measures describing them as theft, saying that they exhibit the moral decline of the United States.

"The theft of blocked money belonging to the people of Afghanistan by the United States, as well as taking possession of it, is a showcase of the human and moral decline of the country and people," a spokesperson for the Taliban political office said then.

Restrictions on the funds were imposed in August 2021, the day the Taliban entered Kabul concurrently with the hasty withdrawal of US occupation forces from Afghanistan.

Related News

After aid drop, albeit temporary, Kiev seeks Washington to ensure flow

Islamic unity vital to counter US, Israeli plots, aggression: Raisi

Da Afghan Bank DAB (central bank) must show that it is free "from political influence and interference," said a Treasury official. DAB must also show that it has "adequate" governance to prevent money laundering and financing of "terrorism", as well as install a "reputable" independent monitor.

"Our assessment of DAB remains unchanged,” said one of the US officials.

Saying that the latest audit is a "preliminary assessment", the Treasury official said its "limitations" suggested that "more comprehensive third-party assessment efforts may be needed."

Shah Mehrabi, an Afghan-American economics professor who chairs DAB's Audit Committee and co-chairs the Afghan Fund board, stated that the audit - which he has seen - was completed last March and is currently with the US State Department.

The audit results will be taken into consideration once they are disclosed, Mehrabi and his co-chair, Anwar ul-Haq Ahady, a former DAB governor and former finance minister, told Reuters.

Millions of Afghan families are struggling to survive due to severe shortages in food and basic necessities fueled by an economic crash and a humanitarian crisis, provoked by the United States imposed global isolation on the impoverished nation.

Read more: Invaded, massacred, now 'abandoned': Afghan trauma from US continues

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai revealed to The Washington Post last year that the United States was directly involved in the corruption in the country, admitting that he also was part of it.

"[I take] full responsibility for the corruption and bribes in the delivery of services… But the big contracts, big corruption, in hundreds of millions of dollars or millions of dollars, was clearly a United States of America thing," Karzai told the newspaper.

  • United States
  • Switzerland
  • Afghanistan
  • Taliban
  • US
  • Kabul

Most Read

BBC from the front lines in Ukraine: It's bad, counteroffensive failed

BBC from the front lines in Ukraine: It's bad, counteroffensive failed

  • Europe
  • 28 Sep 2023
Zelensky joins Canadian Parliament’s ovation to WWII Nazi soldier

Zelensky joins Canadian Parliament’s ovation to WWII Nazi soldier

  • US & Canada
  • 25 Sep 2023
Who Would Ally with the West: ‘It’s Boring – The Real Excitement is in Asia’

Who Would Ally with the West: ‘It’s Boring – The Real Excitement is in Asia’

  • Analysis
  • 30 Sep 2023
How Hezbollah Burnt the Naqab Forest, The Abbassiye Landing Operation

Al Mayadeen documentary: How Hezbollah burnt the IOF's Naqab Forest

  • MENA
  • 24 Sep 2023

Coverage

All
Morocco & Libya Disasters

Read Next

All
sd
MENA

Islamic unity vital to counter US, Israeli plots, aggression: Raisi

DPRK flag
Asia

DPRK assimilates NATO, US alliance with Japan, South Korea to cancer

President Joe Biden signs H.J.Res.100, a bill that aims to avert a freight rail strike, in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, Friday, Dec. 2, 2022, in Washington. (AP)
US & Canada

Biden signs 45-day spending bill averting government shutdown

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks with the media as he arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, June 29, 2023. (AP)n Ukrainian Port
Europe

Borrell sheds crocodile tears over Odessa after slew of drone attacks

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS