Washington: President Joe Biden froze $7 billion in assets belonging to the previous Afghan government on Friday with the aim of splitting the funds between victims of the 9/11 attacks and desperately needed aid for post-war Afghanistan.
Biden formally seized the assets in an executive order. The money had been stuck in the New York Federal Reserve since the fall of the US-backed government in Kabul and takeover by the Taliban insurgency that fought US-led forces for 20 years.
A senior US official said Biden will seek authority to funnel $3.5 billion of that into a humanitarian aid trust fund for Afghans, with the rest becoming potentially available to victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.