MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. By freezing the assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan Washington is actually adding to the humanitarian crisis in that country and obstructs the new authorities in Kabul, who are trying to establish a normal life, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a comment published on Monday.
"In the context of an extremely difficult humanitarian situation, which has emerged, in particular, as a result of the failed military campaign of the United States and its NATO allies, Washington is actually exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and obstructing the new authorities in Kabul, who are trying to establish a normal life," the diplomat noted.
According to her, the freezing of $7 billion of Afghan Central Bank assets in the US under a decree of US President Joe Biden "raises the question of sincerity of the White House's statements about the desire to help stabilize the situation in this country."
"We consider it absurd that Washington reserved more than half of the frozen assets of the Afghan central bank to pay compensations under the claims of relatives of the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Why should the Afghan people, who in no way participated in plotting those terrorist attacks, pay for them?" the diplomat added.
Zakharova also stressed that the US administration's statement that it reserves the right to decide on allocating $3.5 billion on aid to Afghan people from the funds which actually belong to Afghanistan, "cannot be called otherwise than a mockery of common sense.".