The Biden administration has been criticised for a plan to use half of Afghanistan’s foreign reserves, which are currently frozen in US banks, to finance payments from lawsuits by the families of 9/11 victims.
The $7bn of Afghan reserves were held in a US bank by the previous Afghan government and frozen by the Biden administration following the Taliban’s takeover of the country last year. The cutoff of those reserves and other aid had a devastating impact on the country’s banking system and brought the economy close to collapse.
