The US White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday said there are no immediate plans to re-lease Afghanistan’s central bank assets, which were fro-zen following the collapse of the former Afghan govern-ment on August 15.
Psaki’s remarks follow com-ments by the acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi who in a recent interview with the Associated Press said the Islamic Emirate wants to have good relations with the United States and that Washington should free the Afghan assets.
“Sanctions against Afghani-stan would … not have any benefit,” he said, as over $10 billion Afghan assets are fro-zen in banks abroad, mostly located in the United States.
Psaki said for the time being, there is no plan for release of these funds. “There are a number of reasons why these reserves remain inaccessible,” Psaki said at a press briefing.
