KABUL (BNA) The US sanctions, starvation, and theft will likely do more damage to America’s interests in Central Asia than the errors and omissions of the previous two decades, a US newspaper has said.
US President Joe Biden froze about $7 billion in assets held in US financial institutions by the Afghan central bank in the wake of the Taliban takeover, as he vowed to direct $3.5bn to humanitarian aid and preserve the rest for families of victims of the September 11 terror attacks.
However, the move drew serious condemnation from the Afghan public, government and politicians and economic experts and called the decision as unjust and cruel.
A US newspaper, The Hill said that the seizure of the Afghan foreign exchange assets, which will weaken the response to country’s food crisis, already hobbled by the sanctioning of the Taliban government is of all the bad news for Afghans.
The source says that sanctions, starvation, and theft will likely do more damage to America’s interests in Central Asia than the errors and omissions of the previous two decades.
The media outlet also blamed the US for not launching a transparent investigation into the killing of civilians in shootings of US forces after a suicide attack by ISIS militants in Kabul Airport on August 26 and the killing of an entire family in a drone strike in Kabul.
The U.S. is handicapped by its reluctance to verify civilian casualties by on-scene investigation, an unfortunate tendency highlighted by independent findings that the U.S. persistently under reports civilian deaths by relying on aerial surveillance for a body count, it said.
