US unlikely to unfreeze Afghan Bank assets any time soon: Ex-official
The Taliban's practices restricting Afghan women and girls' rights is the new US pretense for refusing to unfreeze Afghanistan's assets.
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Afghan protesters hold placards during a protest condemning US President Joe Biden's decision, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Feb. 12, 2022.
The United States is unlikely to unblock Afghanistan's central bank assets, worth around $7 billion, anytime soon.
Read: Taliban slams splitting Afghan assets as theft, moral decline of US
According to Nader Nadery, a senior fellow at the Asser Institute of international law and a former senior member of the Afghan peace negotiation team, the pretext the US used this time is the Taliban's practices restricting the Afghan women and girls' rights and freedoms.
"So far no sign of immediate unfreezing of the assets. It seems US conditioned it with Taliban behavior on girls education," Nadery told Sputnik when asked if the US may unfreeze the funds in the near future.
Last August, the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of US troops and the end of the US occupation of the country, concluded with a chaotic withdrawal that drew backlash across the world. Following the withdrawal, the US locked billions of dollars of Afghanistan government reserves. In February, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order releasing $7 billion in frozen Afghan funds to be shared between humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan and American victims of "terrorism", including 9/11 families; a step that the Taliban slammed as theft and moral decline of US.
Despite the Taliban's promise to allow women to work, study, and have a role in the government, many Afghan women were still skeptical about the new government, and dozens marched the streets of Herat in September to press for more rights and integration into the future Taliban government.
In March, the Taliban shut down girls' secondary schools in Afghanistan and forced female students to return to their homes.
Yesterday, Taliban gunmen opened fire in the air in the Afghan capital Kabul to disperse a demonstration organized by women demanding their rights to work and political participation, as well as having education.
