US urged to return life- saving money to Afghan people at conference in Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan hosted an international conference on Afghanistan issues on Tuesday with representatives from more than 20 countries and international organizations attending to develop measures and proposals to promote stability, security and post- conflict reconstruction in the war- torn country. Officials, analysts and the international community urged the US to unfreeze and return the money that belongs to the Afghan people in full to help overcome the humanitarian crisis in the country especially after a massive earthquake in June.

The acting foreign minister of Uzbekistan on Tuesday called for the release of Afghanistan’s frozen foreign reserves, Pajhwok Afghan News reported.

Unblocking the assets would spur the economic recovery process in Afghanistan, Acting Foreign Minister Norov Vladimir Imamovich told the conference in Tashkent, according to the report.

Since it has been more than 10 months since the Taliban formed the caretaker government in Afghanistan, regional countries and the international community have been engaged in interactions with the Taliban government on discussing security and other issues, Zhu Yongbiao, director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies in Lanzhou University, told the Global Times.

However, given the increasing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, especially after the earthquake in June, more assistance should be offered to the war- torn country to help the Afghan people, said the expert on Tuesday.

The two- day conference in Uzbek capital Tashkent was scheduled to start on Monday but was delayed for one day, the spokesperson for Afghan Taliban Zabihullah Mujahid was cited by media as saying. Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Mawlavi Amir Khan Muttaqi led a high- level government delegation to Tashkent on Sunday.