KABUL (Xinhua) – The Afghanistan Chamber of Industries and Mines has described the recent decision by U.S. President Joe Biden on Afghanistan’s frozen assets as unjust, and called for the return of the assets.
“On behalf of 5,000 factories and hundreds of mine extracting companies, I today describe the recent decision of President Biden as unjust and stealing our national assets and we denounce it,” acting chairman of the association Al-Hajj Sakhi Ahmad Paiman told reporters on Thursday.
Paiman said some 400,000 people directly and around 1.5 million others indirectly are working for the factories, mines and businesses run by the Afghanistan Chamber of Industries and Mines.
Biden issued an executive order this week authorizing the release of half of the $7 billion in frozen Afghan funds for humanitarian aid, keeping the other half for a possible payment to the families of the 9/11 victims.
Following the order, thousands of Afghans took to the streets of Kabul and other cities to condemn the measure, saying that Afghanistan had nothing to do with the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Angry demonstrators also called on the international community to help Afghanistan unfreeze all the assets frozen in the U.S. as well as the European countries.
“America claims itself as a defender of human rights and freedom. The claim would be undermined at home and abroad if it continues to hold or steal Afghanistan’s assets under any pretext,” Paiman said.
China has also condemned the United States’ decision to seize Afghanistan’s frozen assets amid a mounting humanitarian crisis, saying the conduct is no different from that of “bandits.”
“Without the consent of the Afghan people, the U.S. willfully disposes of assets that belong to the Afghan people, even keeping them as its own. This is no different from the conduct of bandits,” Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press conference.
“As the culprit of the Afghan crisis, the U.S. should not exacerbate the suffering of the Afghan people. It should unfreeze their assets, lift unilateral sanctions on Afghanistan as soon as possible, and assume its due responsibility to ease the humanitarian crisis in the country,” he reiterated.
The decision by Biden came only a few days after the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that Afghanistan is “hanging by a thread,” as millions of Afghans are at the risk of starvation and death.
Afghanistan has about $9 billion in assets overseas, including the $7 billion in the United States. The rest is mostly in Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.