Afghanistan Peace CampaignChina’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, recently reiterated this stance, describing the freezing of Afghanistan’s assets as illegal and unilateral.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate, has criticized the sanctions imposed by the international community on Afghanistan, saying that they have created significant obstacles in fostering political engagement with Western countries.
Describing the sanctions as a failed experiment, Mujahid said that they have yielded no benefits over the past three years. Speaking to TOLOnews, he emphasized the detrimental impact of these measures on the Afghan population.
“All the sanctions have been in place and continue to this day. These sanctions benefit no one, and we demand an end to all sanctions as they directly have negative impacts on the lives of the Afghan people,” Mujahid said.
Key issues resulting from these sanctions include travel bans on certain Islamic Emirate officials, the lack of diplomatic engagement by some nations, the freezing of Afghanistan’s assets, and ongoing banking restrictions.
Since Afghanistan’s assets were frozen by the international community, China has been a vocal critic of this decision. Over the past three years, Chinese officials have consistently called for the release of these funds.
Geng Shuang, China’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, recently reiterated this stance, describing the freezing of Afghanistan’s assets as illegal and unilateral. A Chinese newspaper quoted Geng welcoming the extension of the UN sanctions monitoring team’s mandate on Afghanistan and supporting the team’s efforts to engage with Afghanistan’s interim government.
“We support the monitoring team in strengthening its engagement with the Afghan interim government and look forward to an early visit by the team to Afghanistan,” Geng said.
Economic experts stressed the importance of releasing Afghanistan’s frozen assets for the country’s economic recovery.
Seyar Quraishi, an economic expert, said: “If Afghanistan’s foreign reserves were held by the country’s central bank, they could have been more effective in managing monetary policy.”
It is estimated that over $9 billion of Afghanistan’s assets remain frozen in American and European banks since the Islamic Emirate took control of the country.