Biden to split frozen Afghanistan funds between 9/11 families and humanitarian aid
CBSN
President Biden plans to sign an executive order Friday that would split the $7 billion in Afghan government funds held in the United States, dividing the funds into money that some families of victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks can access through legal means and the other half for programs providing humanitarian relief and help with other basic needs for Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has over $9 billion in reserves — including just over $7 billion in reserves held in the United States. The rest are largely in UK, Germany, Switzerland, and the UAE. Most of the assets that are in the U.S. come from assistance that the U.S. and international donors have provided to the Afghan government over the past two decades.
The Biden administration announced the move Friday after spending months trying to sort out how to free up some of the assets to support the needs of the Afghan people without allowing the Taliban to access the funds, while also considering ongoing litigation by U.S. terrorism victims.
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