TEHRAN- Afghans have staged protests against a decision by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to use $3.5 billion dollars of their country’s frozen assets to help settle lawsuits by the families of 9/11 victims. 

This is while the U.S. will continue to maintain a strong economic blockade on Afghanistan and it’s central bank making it very difficult to ease the mounting humanitarian crisis in the country. 

The protesters say the money belongs to the Afghan people stressing they are the ones who should be compensated by the U.S. for 20 years of occupation, that brought about terror, destruction, poverty, and the killing of a countless number of civilians. 

Demonstrators have also gathered outside Kabul's Eid Gah mosque making similar demands of reparations from the U.S.

Civil society activist Abdul Rahman had this message for the U.S. administration: “what about our Afghan people, who gave many sacrifices and thousands and thousands of losses of lives?''

Afghan activists have also pointed out that none of the hijackers that staged the 9/11 attacks were Afghan nationals and say they will never forget the destruction left behind by America. 

Aid groups have condemned the move saying the money legally belongs to the Afghan people and nobody else is entitled to it. 

Addressing a press conference in Kabul, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai slammed Biden’s decision. He has called on Washington to immediately return the $7 billion in frozen assets which he says “belong to no government, but to the people of Afghanistan”.

The Taliban’s senior spokesperson, Mohammad Naeem Wardak, wrote on social media that "the theft and seizure of money owed by the United States to the Afghan people represent the lowest level of human and moral decay of a country and a nation”. 

Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Munir Akram, says the money was “critically needed” to revive the economy of the war-battered country. Akram says “we have consistently joined the calls of the international community as well as the senior UN officials and the international humanitarian actors to unfreeze Afghanistan’s reserves”

Critics have also denounced the White House for doing so little to address underlying factors driving Afghanistan’s massive humanitarian crisis after 20 years of American occupation.

A financial advisor to the former Afghan government, Torek Farhadi, questioned the White House’s decision saying "these reserves belong to the people of Afghanistan, not the Taliban... Biden's decision is one-sided and does not match with international law”

Farhadi also says that “no other country on Earth makes such confiscation decisions about another country's reserves”. 

Policy Analyst and Afghan Researcher, Mohsin Amin, strongly denounced the move; writing on social media that "the U.S. dropped 85,000 bombs on Afghanistan. Even if one bomb killed 3 people, it's 255K. The last U.S. airstrike killed 10 (7 children), "97 percent of [Afghanistan] is starving, 3.2m children are malnourished, yet the US wants to throttle the economy and steal the hard-earned savings of Afghans”. 

The Policy Advisor to the UK Minister of Afghan Resettlement, Shabnam Nasimi, wrote on social media "as more than 23 million people are on the brink of starvation, it is unjust & immoral for @POTUS to want to use billions of Afghanistan’s frozen assets to pay 9/11 victims. The horrific 9/11 attacks had nothing to do with the people of Afghanistan, & they should not be punished”. 

Adam Weinstein, a researcher at the Quincy Institute, also added to the chorus of condemnation online saying the move will "go down in history as a travesty. Punishing an entire people for a crime they did not commit & kneecapping them into forever dependence should offend every American”. 

On Sunday, the Afghan central bank called on the U.S. administration to reverse the decision. 

In a statement, the Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) said "blocking Foreign Exchange (FX) Reserves and allocating them to irrelevant purposes, is an injustice to the people of Afghanistan and [the DAB] will never accept if the FX reserves of Afghanistan is paid under the name of compensation or humanitarian assistance to others and [the DAB]  wants the reversal of the decision and release of all FX reserves of Afghanistan”.

"As per the law and relevant regulations, FX reserves of Afghanistan are used to implement monetary policy, facilitate international trade and stabilize financial sector”.

The statement added that “the real owners of these reserves are the people of Afghanistan. These reserves were not the property of governments, parties, and groups and have never been used as per their demand and decisions”. 

When Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, Afghanistan had over $9 billion in reserves held on behalf of the country’s central bank abroad.

This included $7 billion in foreign currency reserves held in the U.S., and the rest mostly in Germany, the UAE, Switzerland, and a few other countries.

The Biden administration has decided to release $3.5 billion of Afghanistan’s money held in America towards families of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks and it has also agreed to allocate the other $3.5 billion towards a trust fund that will be used to send humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. 

However, a senior U.S. administration official told reporters that it will take a long time before the money is even released for humanitarian relief in Afghanistan claiming “we have to go through a judicial process here, it is going to be at least a number of months before we can move any of this money, right? So this money isn’t going to be available over the next couple of months regardless“. 

The remarks come as acute malnutrition is spiking and over 90 percent of the country is facing serious food insecurity, problems that disproportionally affect women and girls; while Afghan children are starving to death nearly every day.

Advocacy group Human Rights Watch says “even if implemented, the decision would create a problematic precedent.. directing $3.5 billion to humanitarian assistance for Afghans may sound generous, but it should be remembered that the entire $7 billion already legally belonged to the Afghan people”.

The rights group highlights that even if the U.S. gives the remaining money to “a humanitarian trust fund, current restrictions on Afghanistan’s banking sector make it virtually impossible to send or spend the money inside the country”. 

It added that more important to addressing Afghanistan’s current crisis “are ongoing efforts by the United Nations and humanitarian organizations to convince the U.S. and World Bank to ease economic restrictions to allow Afghanistan’s economy, which is near complete collapse, to stabilize. Current restrictions on Afghanistan’s banking system are driving the population toward famine” 

On multiple occasions, humanitarian organizations have warned that keeping an economic blockade on the country will only make things worse. 

Organizations and groups that are trying to offer assistance need access to banks. 

Human Rights Watch says “without them, the UN’s own humanitarian activities have become exceedingly difficult; some have had to cease operations altogether”.

Aid group Refugees International has also issued a statement saying they are concerned Biden’s administration’s decision will exacerbate the suffering of the Afghan people.

The organization said "millions are already facing a dire and life-threatening humanitarian crisis this winter. Using part of Afghanistan’s reserves to help provide badly needed relief aid and essential services will no doubt help save lives”

It added, "but we are concerned that this action could further cripple the country’s financial system and thereby perpetuate the suffering of the Afghan people."

Analysts say the mounting condemnation of the U.S. administration will add to America’s disastrous policies and mistakes Washington committed and is continuing to commit again the people of Afghanistan.