The United States has said it will transfer $3.5bn in Afghan central bank assets – part of the reserves seized after the Taliban took power in August last year – into a new Swiss-based trust fund to be used “for the benefit of the people of Afghanistan”.
The new Afghan Fund, managed by an international board of trustees and shielded from the Taliban, could pay for critical imports such as electricity, cover debt payments to international financial institutions and fund the printing of new currency.
