US efforts underway to keep cash away from Taliban

Washington [US], August 18 (ANI): After Kabul fell into the hands of the Taliban, the US is taking steps to keep cash away from the Taliban.

US Treasury has taken steps to prevent cash reserves managed by the Federal Reserve and other US banks out of the hands of the Taliban, officials told CNN. CNN reported earlier this week that the abrupt collapse of the Afghanistan government on Sunday had raised questions from several veterans of previous administrations about assets of the Afghan Central Bank and whether any of the money could end up in the hands of the Taliban.

The “vast majority” of the Afghan Central Bank assets are not held in Afghanistan, a US official familiar with the matter told CNN. The assets in the US have been essentially blocked by the reach of the Taliban. Separately, a Biden administration official said on Sunday that any assets the Afghan government has in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban.

Meanwhile, the White House believes that the Taliban won’t return the US weapons that it captured from Afghan forces. During a press conference in Washington, Sullivan said the Biden administration believes that a “fair amount” of the weapons that the US gave to Afghanistan are in the possession of the Taliban, and they don’t expect they will be returned to the US.

“We don’t have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defence materials has gone but certainly, a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban, and obviously, we don’t have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us at the airport,” he added.

The terror group took control over Afghanistan on Sunday after entering the presidential palace in Kabul. The Taliban leaders are discussing future government plans in Doha and are in touch with the international community and intra-Afghan parties to form government in Afghanistan.

The world is closely watching the unfolding situation in Afghanistan as the countries have scrambled to evacuate its citizen from Afghanistan in an attempt to secure their people. (ANI)