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U.S. To Release $221 Million In Afghan Assets
WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States will free, in the next few days, $221 million in Afghan government assets frozen since 1999, as the country's interim administration battles to stave off bankruptcy, a senior official said.
The assets of the Afghan Central Bank, much of which are held in gold by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, were seized after Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers refused to hand over Al-Qaeda fighters linked to the 1998 attacks on United States embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.
"We hope we can have this done in the next day or so," the senior State Department official said Tuesday, January 15, on condition of anonymity.
Spokesman for U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, said Monday, Januaury 14, that the country was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, with assets of less than $10 million.
"This administration needs several million dollars tomorrow - otherwise, there will be no country when the billions are available," Ahmed Fawzi said, referring to a planned meeting on reconstruction aid in Tokyo next week.
Afghan interim Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah, said that around $10 million was needed immediately to pay civil servants about a month's salary. They have not been paid wages for six months.
The U.S. decision to ease the asset freeze came after the United Nations agreed on Friday to start exempting Afghanistan's central bank from the embargo.
Japan has also moved on the issue.
A further $23 million would also be made available to the interim government - the product of charges paid by foreign airlines for flying over Afghan airspace, the official said.
The Taliban militia was barred from recouping the fees under United Nations sanctions imposed in a bid to force it to hand over Osama bin Laden, the top suspect in September 11 attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon outside Washington, DC.
U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said Monday, January 14, that the United States would offer Afghanistan significant financial assistance, as the country's interim finance minister met with senior U.S. officials.
Powell, who will visit Kabul for two days January 21 among his Asian tour, said he would take his message in person to Afghanistan's interim government, headed by Hamid Karzai.
"That's the purpose of my trip: to reassure him that the international community will stand alongside him and behind him," Powell said.
"We didn't just ask him to take this job on alone," he said in an interview with CNN. "A lot of people are waiting to help; a lot of resources are going to be available."
Karzai's finance minister, Hedayat Amin Arsala, is meeting U.S. officials to discuss his government's need for operating expenses, as well as the country's reconstruction plans. He met Alan Larsen, the undersecretary of state for economic and business affairs, on Monday January 14.
A "start-up fund", established for the government after the inter-Afghan conference in Bonn last month, had called for donations of $20 million, but so far, just $17.8 million in pledges have been made.
Of this, only $8.6 million has been committed.
State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said the United States has contributed one million dollars to the start-up fund and would consider whether to boost that amount.
At a press briefing Monday, he said that the government was considering a range of possible contributions, but he could not yet give an exact amount.
An Afghan team assigned the task of putting a price tag on the reconstruction effort estimated that the country could need up to $45 billion over 10 years from the international community.
International financiers working on a preliminary needs assessment for the country have estimated that at least $15 billion will be needed to rebuild Afghanistan in the first 10 years.
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