The Taliban on Tuesday thanked the planet for pledging many many dollars in emergency aid to Afghanistan and urged the US to point out “heart” to the impoverished country.
A donor conference in Geneva on Monday saw countries promise a complete of $1.2 billion in aid for Afghanistan, which was appropriated by the Islamist group last month during a lightning offensive that took retreating US troops all of sudden.
Afghanistan, already heavily hooked in to aid, is facing depression, with the new authorities unable to pay salaries and food prices soaring.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the regime’s acting secretary of state, told a news conference the Taliban would spend donor money wisely and use it to alleviate poverty.
“The Islamic Emirate will try its best to deliver this aid to the needy people in a completely transparent manner,” Muttaqi said.
He also asked Washington to point out appreciation for the Taliban allowing the US to finish a troop withdrawal and evacuation of quite 120,000 people last month.
“America may be a big country, they have to possess an enormous heart,” he said.
Muttaqi said Afghanistan, which is additionally facing a drought, had already received aid from countries like Pakistan, Qatar, and Uzbekistan, but didn’t give further details.
He said he had held discussions with China’s ambassador on the coronavirus vaccine and other humanitarian causes, with Beijing pledging $15m which can be available “soon”.
Since the Taliban takeover, the planet Bank and International fund have halted Afghanistan’s access to funding, while the US has also frozen cash held in its reserve for Kabul.
‘Very important to interact with Taliban’
UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday said he believed aid might be used as leverage with the group to exact improvements on human rights, amid fears of a return to the brutal rule that characterized the primary Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001.
“It is impossible to supply humanitarian assistance inside Afghanistan without engaging with the de facto authorities,” the UN secretary-general told ministers attending the Geneva talks.
“It is extremely important to interact with the Taliban at this moment.”
The Taliban have promised a milder sort of rule this point around, but have moved swiftly to crush dissent, including firing within the air to disperse recent protests by women calling for the proper education and work.
UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said she was “dismayed by the shortage of inclusivity of the so-called caretaker cabinet, which incorporates no women and few non-Pakhtuns”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has previously warned that the Taliban would need to earn legitimacy and support, after talks with allies on the way to present a Northern Alliance.
The caretaker cabinet, he said, would be judged “by its actions”.
Meanwhile, Afghans are resorting to selling their household goods to boost money to buy essentials, and bustling second-hand goods markets have mushroomed in most urban centers.
Ajmal Ahmady, former acting governor of the Afghan financial institution, tweeted last week that the country did not have access to around $9bn in aid, loans, and assets.
