MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/. Afghanistan’s assets should be unfrozen in a way avoiding the spending of national reserves, further collapse of the national currency and solution of political problems against the help to the Afghans hit by the humanitarian crisis, the country’s Ambassador to Russia Said Tayeb Jawad said in an interview with TASS.
"It has to be done in a proper way. I think the banking system should be allowed to function in Afghanistan, the banking system is on the verge of collapse, it has already collapsed actually. But part of these freezing assets of Afghanistan is also the national reserves of Afghanistan. Taliban cannot spend that money even if the international community unfreezes those assets because the national reserve is a backup of our currency. <...> That has to be done in a smart way. We are facing starvation, we are facing famine in Afghanistan, we have to prevent that but we should not allow the Taliban to take the Afghan people hostage and ask for recognition in exchange for feeding the Afghan people. The assistance should go directly to the Afghans by any means," he said.
The exchange rate of the national currency has lost one-third of its value to almost 100 Afghani per $1, the diplomat noted, adding that the spending of national reserves would push it further down, and "every time that the Afghani is devaluated, the basic items like bread prices, sugar prices, oil prices all go up because they are imported in dollars."
That said, providing humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan is not sufficient, Ambassador emphasized. "You cannot just find a bandage and put it on a bleeding wound. The whole body is now sick in Afghanistan, it has to be fixed. <...> You cannot run a country by illiterate clergies," he concluded.
Earlier, the World Bank announced plans to earmark $500 mln to the country as humanitarian aid. Special Russian Presidential Representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said on December 1 that the situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate and is heading toward a humanitarian disaster. He blamed countries of the West, which have blocked the country’s funds, and are dealing inaptly with unblocking possibilities for the transfer of humanitarian aid. Thus, on the one hand, the World Bank has unblocked $500 mln, but several months ago it cut local banks from the SWIFT payment system, stripping them of the possibility of making mutual settlements, the diplomat stressed.