US court to make final decision on use of Afghanistan’s frozen assets

The White House said Tuesday that a court will make the final decision on Afghanistan Central Bank’s assets that US President Joe Biden ordered be partly used to compensate the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, White House Spokesperson Jen Psaki said that no funds can be transferred until the courts make a ruling.
Defending Biden’s decision, Psaki stated that the president was trying to pave the way for some of the funds to be used for humanitarian purposes in Afghanistan.

“What the president was trying to do was enable certain US-based assets belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank to be used to benefit the Afghan people,” said Psaki, adding “otherwise it would have been held — right? — and that money wouldn’t have been going.”

“And so, that’s why we saw — and he took a proactive step to facilitate access to $3.5 billion of those assets for the benefit of the Afghan people and Afghanistan’s future.”

“As you know, many US victims of terrorism, including the relatives of victims who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks have brought claims against the Taliban (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) and are pursuing these assets in federal court,” she said.

Psaki added that more than $3.5 billion in assets are going to remain in the United States and are subject to the ongoing litigation.

“What I think it’s important for people to know and understand is he took this proactive step to sign the executive order in an effort to try to provide some of this funding to the Afghan people,” she said.