KABUL (Dispatches) – Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Amir Khan Mottaqi says that recognition of the interim government and release of Afghan reserves frozen by the U.S. and the West is a legitimate right of the Afghan people that lead to economic and political relations’ growth, the Foreign Ministry in Kabul said in a statement.
Amir Khan Mottaqi added that the situation in Afghanistan is the most conducive ever to positive diplomatic interaction, Khama News reported.
The acting Foreign Minister expressed the remarks in his meeting with U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West and Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Shiekh Muhammad bin Abdurahman al-Thani.
The meeting was arranged on the sideline of Antalya’s Diplomatic Forum in Turkey on Friday, March 11, 2022.
Qatari Foreign Minister discussed the U.S. and Qatar’s diplomatic missions in Kabul and added that meetings as such are fruitful for all sides.
Meanwhile, Thomas West shed light on his country’s future policies towards Afghanistan and added that the U.S. will make efforts for economic growth in Afghanistan.
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has frozen nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank since the chaotic withdrawal of its occupation forces from the country in August 2021.
Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai has expresses strong objection to the United States’ ongoing confiscation of the Afghan central bank’s assets.
“The assets that the U.S. has confiscated belong to the Afghan people. These assets used to buttress the central bank and Afghanistan’s coffers,” Karzai told Iran’s Arabic-language news network al-Alam on Tuesday.
“These assets do not belong to any certain government, but to the Afghan nation only,” he added.
“We hope that the U.S. president changes his decision and returns the long-suffering Afghan people’s money,” Karzai urged.
Deborah Lyons, the special representative of the United Nations secretary-general and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), warned last week that Afghanistan’s economic collapse was “approaching a point of irreversibility.”