US Decision to Establish Afghan Fund Violates International Law: Russian Embassy

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian Embassy in Washington said on Thursday that the US decision to establish a fund for the people of Afghanistan from frozen Afghan funds violates international law and the sovereignty of a foreign country.

"We consider this step to contradict International Law and violate sovereignty of the foreign state. The people of Afghanistan have the right to independently command assets belonging to them without any external control. The Embassy of the Russian Federation strongly believes that such actions of the United States, no matter which humanitarian mottos it uses as a smokescreen, will only exacerbate misery of the Afghan people," the embassy said on Telegram.

The embassy called on Washington to return frozen assets of the Afghanistan Bank "to its owner and stop using colonial practices with regard to sovereign states."

On Wednesday, the US State Department said that the United States has established a fund for the people of Afghanistan that will disburse $3.5 billion of US-held Afghan central bank reserves to support the Afghan economy, while leaving the funds out of reach for the Taliban (under UN sanctions for terrorism). The Afghan Fund will maintain its account with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) based in Switzerland.

The Taliban* came to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, with the takeover resulting in deepening economic, humanitarian and security crises in the country. In February of this year, President Joe Biden signed an order allowing the $7 billion in US-held Afghan Central Bank funds to be split equally between a humanitarian trust to help the Afghan people and compensation for the victims of terrorism.

*Organization is under UN sanctions over terrorist activities