The United States is about to release more than 3 billion dollars in Afghan assets for the Afghan people. It is the explicit intention that the money stays out of the hands of those in power: the radical Islamic Taliban.
The amount is half of the Afghan financial reserves in the United States that the US government holds. The Taliban returned to power last year.
The other half remains frozen for now, pending the outcome of lawsuits from US victims of terrorism. This includes family members of those who died on September 11, 2001, in the radical Islamic attacks on the US. They demand compensation.
The Biden administration was under pressure from the US parliament to use frozen Afghan reserves to deal with the severe economic crisis in Afghanistan. The country is in a deep recession and has hardly any cash in hand.
The US president will take the first step later Friday, sources report. He will then order frozen funds to be transferred to a special account of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.