UN hands Afghanistan a $1bn lifeline
AFGHAN acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, who is under UN sanctions, thanked foreign countries for humanitarian assistance provided to Kabul and also called on banks and donor states to provide financial assistance.
He pledged the Taliban movement would co-ordinate its actions with countries that provided assistance.
“We would like to ask the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and donor countries to provide development aid to Afghanistan and resume funding the projects that are not fully implemented,” Muttaqi said at a press conference.
The Taliban want to have “good relations” with foreign countries but they should not pressure Kabul, as “pressure does not work and does not benefit Afghanistan or world countries”, Muttaqi continued.
A UN donor conference for Afghanistan raised more than $1billion in emergency assistance to combat a humanitarian crisis that deepened
after the Taliban took power, triggering diplomatic isolation along with a precipitous loss of foreign aid.
Afghanistan was reeling from multiple calamities even before the US withdrawal last month, including a severe drought affecting a third of the country and mass displacement of civilians. Now, “1 in 3 Afghans do not know where their next meal will come from”, UN Secretary General António Guterres said as the conference in Geneva got under way. “The poverty rate is spiraling, and basic public services are close to collapse.
“The people of Afghanistan need a lifeline. After decades of war, suffering and insecurity, they face perhaps their most perilous hour.”
Non-governmental agencies such as the United Nations are among the few remaining organisations equipped to deliver assistance to Afghanistan, after Western governments and financial institutions suspended foreign aid that accounted for the lion’s share of the government’s budget.
Last month, the Biden administration froze Afghan reserves held in US bank accounts, preventing the Taliban from accessing some $9 billion in overseas funds and leaving experts to warn that the move could hasten a dire financial crisis in Afghanistan.
The amount raised on Monday was double the $600m the United Nations had solicited as a stopgap solution to provide aid to 11 million people over the next four months. None of the money will go directly to, or through, the Taliban government. | Sputnik and