House Democrats call on Biden to unfreeze Afghan reserves
More than 40 House Democrats on Monday called on US President Joe Biden to open up access to economic reserves for Afghanistan in order to prevent ”imminent mass starvation.”
Following the report on Wednesday Mohammad Naeem, spokesman of the Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), thanked the US Congress members in a series of tweets.
“We are grateful for the move by members of the United States Congress, following our open letter to Congress, to President Biden to lift sanctions on Afghanistan and freeze the Federal Reserve,” Naeem tweeted.
He further added that “the freezing of the reserves and the banking system of the Central Bank of Afghanistan is causing a humanitarian catastrophe.”
In their letter to Biden, the 46 Democrats stressed that while they supported the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, they also agreed with international calls for the U.S. to avoid imposing economic measures that would contribute to Afghanistan’s collapsing economy, The Hill reported.
“This means conscientiously but urgently modifying current U.S. policy regarding the freeze of Afghanistan’s foreign reserves and ongoing sanctions,” they wrote.
International organizations have warned that Afghanistan is facing widespread famine this winter, with 97 percent of people in Afghanistan projected to be living in poverty if interventions aren’t made.