Freezing Afghanistan’s wealth: US scrambles to hit hard with “soft” power

The U.S. may not have a physical presence inside of Afghanistan in the future, but the fear is that its economic sanctions may end up being more deadly than its armed forces.

by Robert Inkalesh

Part 2 - The hard impact of U.S. “soft” power

“Any Central Bank assets the Afghan government have in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban,” said an unnamed U.S. official speaking to The Washington Post. According to that same report, the Biden administration has now frozen the assets of Afghanistan, the vast majority of which are not held inside of the nation’s own borders.

Some 80% of Afghanistan’s annual budget is currently funded by the United States and other foreign governments, which may well end now that the Taliban have seized control of the country.

In alignment with sanctions in place against the Taliban and Executive Order 13224, any dealings with the Taliban are prohibited. Executive Order 13224 was signed by then-President George W. Bush in the wake of the September 11 attacks and was said to have been designed to restrict financing to U.S.-designated terrorist organizations. This means that for one of the poorest countries on the planet, it may now be even more difficult to bring in international humanitarian aid at a time when the ongoing refugee crisis is expected to escalate.

On May 6, 2019, the UN Human Rights Council — commenting on the implementation of sanctions against Iran, Venezuela and Cuba — stated that “the use of economic sanctions [by the U.S. government] for political purposes violates human rights and the norms of international behaviour.” It also warned that such actions threaten creation of “man-made humanitarian catastrophes of unprecedented proportions”.

Over the past two decades, successive U.S. administrations have fueled their nation-building project in Afghanistan, working to build an Afghan military 300,000 strong, armed with some of the latest in U.S. military equipment. Between 2001 and 2019, the U.S. government spent $133 billion on its nation-building efforts in Afghanistan.

Source, links:

https://www.mintpressnews.com/afghanistan-sanctions-us-scrambles-to-hit-hard-with-soft-power/278255/

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