The Biden administration reportedly froze Afghan government reserves held in U.S. bank accounts Sunday, after the Taliban seized the capital city of Kabul this weekend, effectively toppling the country's government.

The Washington Post reported that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and personnel at the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control decided to freeze the accounts, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The move effectively blocks the Taliban from accessing the billions of dollars that were being stored in U.S. institutions, the Post reported.

"Any Central Bank assets the Afghan government have in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban," an administration official told the newspaper in a statement.

The State Department was also reportedly part of conversations this weekend regarding the accounts, and White House officials were said to be watching the developments.

The Hill has reached out to the Treasury Department for more information.

The reported move by the administration is the first in what is expected to be a number of important decisions top officials will face as they grapple with the return of the Taliban, which took control of Afghanistan this weekend following a withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, and relies heavily on American aid that is now in question.

The Afghan central bank had $9.4 billion in reserve assets as of April, according to the International Monetary Fund, which the Post noted is equivalent to about a third of the country's yearly economic output.

The majority of those reserves, however, are not kept in Afghanistan, a source told the Post. Billions of dollars are reportedly held in the U.S., but the exact amount is not known.

The Biden administration did not need new authority to freeze the reserves because the Taliban was already under sanctions from an executive order approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, former Obama administration official Adam Smith told the newspaper.

Smith served on the National Security Council and as a senior adviser to the director of the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control under the Obama administration.

The news comes after Abdul Ghani Baradar, the co-founder of the Taliban and a key leader of the group, arrived in Afghanistan on Tuesday for the first time in more than 10 years.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/568209-biden-administration-freezes-afghan-government-reserves-in-us-banks?amp

ryloy:
The Biden administration reportedly froze Afghan government reserves held in U.S. bank accounts Sunday, after the Taliban seized the capital city of Kabul this weekend, effectively toppling the country's government.

The Washington Post reported that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and personnel at the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control decided to freeze the accounts, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The move effectively blocks the Taliban from accessing the billions of dollars that were being stored in U.S. institutions, the Post reported.

"Any Central Bank assets the Afghan government have in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban," an administration official told the newspaper in a statement.

The State Department was also reportedly part of conversations this weekend regarding the accounts, and White House officials were said to be watching the developments.

The Hill has reached out to the Treasury Department for more information.

The reported move by the administration is the first in what is expected to be a number of important decisions top officials will face as they grapple with the return of the Taliban, which took control of Afghanistan this weekend following a withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, and relies heavily on American aid that is now in question.

The Afghan central bank had $9.4 billion in reserve assets as of April, according to the International Monetary Fund, which the Post noted is equivalent to about a third of the country's yearly economic output.

The majority of those reserves, however, are not kept in Afghanistan, a source told the Post. Billions of dollars are reportedly held in the U.S., but the exact amount is not known.

The Biden administration did not need new authority to freeze the reserves because the Taliban was already under sanctions from an executive order approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, former Obama administration official Adam Smith told the newspaper.

Smith served on the National Security Council and as a senior adviser to the director of the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control under the Obama administration.

The news comes after Abdul Ghani Baradar, the co-founder of the Taliban and a key leader of the group, arrived in Afghanistan on Tuesday for the first time in more than 10 years.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/568209-biden-administration-freezes-afghan-government-reserves-in-us-banks?amp

First to comment

There are many things you could have done to stop them from advancing but you refused ..the Taliban control the world supply of opium so mony is not their problem

Best thing to do.

Afghan has 70% of the Poppy farms. That's an economy on its own. Taliban go manage. That's where they get money to sponsor their allahu akbomb agenda.

The billions in the reserves, where do you think it's from? Opium baby.

If you think you are useless, remember that after 20years,4 presidents, trillions of dollars, millions of lives, America has replaced Taliban with Taliban in Afghanistan.

Hmmmm

Nna mehnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

All these okada men sef always riding Honda

With all that is happening in Afghanistan, all you could do is to freeze the billion's of dollar in the account.. how does that affect the Taliban? When they have access to crude oil, sell off their woman to Italy, harvest their children organs and sell it off to china, help in training other countries terrorist. They will have lot of money.. but it's the money in the account you are after, to use and build your economy... America itself is not safe oo! Now.. they need a republican president in America because that's there target... Before the end of 2021, Taliban will hit America again!

FarahAideed:
There are many things you could have done to stop them from advancing but you refused ..the Taliban control the world supply of opium so mony is not their problem

special adviser to POTUS, tell us one of the many things they could have done to stop the Taliban advance and the eventual capitulation of Kabul

For forrk sake, why are you not blaming over 300k Afghan soldiers that could even put up a fight against 70k talibans, and flee like a dog with flees, America said they ant continue to be involved in another countrys civil war, Afghanistan wants America to keep spoon feeding them, even with all the high tech gadgets and weaponry they got from America, all of these now had fallen into talibans hands and should America be blamed for that too

Gadafii:
special adviser to POTUS, tell us one of the many things they could have done to stop the Taliban advance and the eventual capitulation of Kabul

For forrk sake, why are you not blaming over 300k Afghan soldiers that could even put up a fight against 70k talibans, and flee like a dog with flees, America said they ant continue to be involved in another countrys civil war, Afghanistan wants America to keep spoon feeding them, even with all the high tech gadgets and weaponry they got from America, all of these now had fallen into talibans hands and should America be blamed for that too

Just with America's Airpower alone they could have halted any Taliban advance and that would have boosted the moral of the Cowardly Afghan troops who have never fought without the Americans guiding them

FarahAideed:


Just with America's Airpower alone they could have halted any Taliban advance and that would have boosted the moral of the Cowardly Afghan troops who have never fought without the Americans guiding them

do you know how many air components America had deployed in Afghanistan against taliban, do you know how many drones America used against Taliban yet there was still no major achievement, aside the agreement by American govt to pull out all troops and non combatants from Afghan civil war.

It was an agreement during the Trump administration that America shall pull out its own trips out and the Afghan army shall continue the war, in their own, but they would still be getting military advise and war equipment, but non of it's soldier shall fight the war anymore, the only reason America would have attacked Taliban with airstrikes was if Taliban had attacked American formation while pulling out, as long as the Afghan soldier flee their posts, their is nothing the Americans can do than to watch out for any would be attacks on it's on citizens or soldiers.

The talibans are very much aware of all of these, they didn't attack the Americans unlike during the Soviet pull out, where bombs rained on the Soviets.

Taliban took major part of the country without a single fight it opposition from the Afghan army, so na America wan deploy plans to halt their advance

Its funny but it only highlights the fact that America is not as great as they want the rest of the world to believe.

The British empire built and sustained majority of the countries of the world including America, to some its very easy to do until America decided to try their expertise in nation building with guns and trillions of dollars.

They failed shamefully in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Vietnam, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, etc

Even in their own country they have turned democracy upside down where majority vote don't count, resources controlled by the 1% with a history of overthrowing democratically elected governments and replacing with Despots.

Its time to move on from the illusion that America is the world power!

Joe Biden is very active and useful(there couldn't been a better time)..

Those angry with Joe, are those gaining from the war. Eg. You don't expect Russia and China to be happy,because of weapons..

Some few individuals too, drugs and human trafficking, money laundering, war mongers, war initiators and mediators, pillagers, to mention but a few. They do them for the money...

This is getting interesting.
No room for terrorism in our world.
We believe International powers may also entertain new sanctions against Afghanistan, a suggestion already made by Britain’s foreign minister earlier this week.
Sanctions can help force foreign adversaries to adopt U.S. policy by penalizing their trade partners. However, they can also exact brutal humanitarian tolls on civilian populations.
All citizens must be protected, especially the young girls........and boys.

We Rise.

Biden will go down in American history as not just the worst president produced by democrats but the worst US President in history

His calculation of recalling the troops in Afghanistan was woeful and has lead to an almost smooth takeover by Taliban group

All these are medicine after death

The Taliban have support from both China and Russia and now both countries didn't waste any time in supporting the Taliban leadership

As far as I'm concerned, the US has lost that war and whatever Biden us doing right now is just medicine after death

I see US being attacked again very soon by these monsters. Who knows how hard and where in particular will they hit US?

Great move

Check out my signature... Shey u go eat before you get strength to read news

This news is stale.

Bad move
You have citizens there

Make sense

Pheeeeeewww

That Afghan cowardly president should be arrested for fucking up his country.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a news conference Tuesday that NATO has suspended aid to the Afghan government as well. “We have of course suspended all support, financial and other kinds of support, to the Afghan government, because there is no Afghan government for NATO to support,” Stoltenberg said. “No money is transferred; no support is provided.”

FarahAideed:
There are many things you could have done to stop them from advancing but you refused ..the Taliban control the world supply of opium so mony is not their problem

Sure, definitely

Gadafii:
special adviser to POTUS, tell us one of the many things they could have done to stop the Taliban advance and the eventual capitulation of Kabul

For forrk sake, why are you not blaming over 300k Afghan soldiers that could even put up a fight against 70k talibans, and flee like a dog with flees, America said they ant continue to be involved in another countrys civil war, Afghanistan wants America to keep spoon feeding them, even with all the high tech gadgets and weaponry they got from America, all of these now had fallen into talibans hands and should America be blamed for that too

Instead of spewing ignorance. You can go on msnbc and watch a U.S veteran interview on why the Afghan army couldn't fight back.

Summary, he blamed Biden and not the Afghans.

Why?

Because for years, the Afghan army weren't being funded and were ill equipped, without fuel or ammunition. Even with all that the Afghan army were still putting up a fight. And the U.S just bailed out on them.

Very incompetent administration.

See money. Na to find way hack into the details of that account and withdraw the money, load am for different sure clients accounts for US. Then you go use sure third party accounts collect am after u don give the clients their cut.

Big Wahala...

FarahAideed:
There are many things you could have done to stop them from advancing but you refused ..the Taliban control the world supply of opium so mony is not their problem

they have huge Lithium deposits too. They can never be broke.

Gadafii:
do you know how many air components America had deployed in Afghanistan against taliban, do you know how many drones America used against Taliban yet there was still no major achievement, aside the agreement by American govt to pull out all troops and non combatants from Afghan civil war.

It was an agreement during the Trump administration that America shall pull out its own trips out and the Afghan army shall continue the war, in their own, but they would still be getting military advise and war equipment, but non of it's soldier shall fight the war anymore, the only reason America would have attacked Taliban with airstrikes was if Taliban had attacked American formation while pulling out, as long as the Afghan soldier flee their posts, their is nothing the Americans can do than to watch out for any would be attacks on it's on citizens or soldiers.

The talibans are very much aware of all of these, they didn't attack the Americans unlike during the Soviet pull out, where bombs rained on the Soviets.

Taliban took major part of the country without a single fight it opposition from the Afghan army, so na America wan deploy plans to halt their advance

No achievement, are you kidding.

Yea drones and other military hardware are designed to kill but yes we fight following something called the rules of engagement.

Let me provide more context, our servicemen are well armed with the state of the art military weapons but will i fire to an enemy shooting at me using his wives and children as cover, Hell no.

The sucess of operation enduring freedom hinges of the readiness of afghans to embrace change and they've told us in clear terms now that they love the Taliban, their is nothing to be done.

Stop pushing crazy narratives.