An insightful article published by the Australian think tank Future Directions International (FDI) reveals that the U.S. policy towards Afghanistan is far worse than blocking the reserves of the Da Afghanistan Bank, and in reality comes down to a full-fledged financial and economic blockade and embargo. (https://www.futuredirections.org.au/publication/different-approaches-from-the-us-and-china-to-economic-and-humanitarian-challenges-in-afghanistan/)
According to FDI’s New Delhi-based Visiting Fellow Tridivesh Singh Maini, “The U.S. Treasury issued licences on 24 September 2021 to ensure that, while humanitarian aid to Afghanistan would not be obstructed, sanctions on the Taliban will remain in force.” To be more precise: “The existing U.S. sanctions freeze the Taliban’s assets in the U.S. and prohibit Americans from dealing with the group, by way of funds, goods or services.”
Maini quotes State Department spokesman Ned Price at his Sept. 24 briefing, on the decision of the U.S. Treasury, that U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) “issued two general licenses to support our continued flow of humanitarian assistance or other activities that support basic human needs for the people of Afghanistan, as well as critical food and medicine.” Maini paraphrases OFAC Director Andrea Gacki as saying that Washington “would work with international organizations and financial institutions so that medicines, agricultural goods and other essential items could be sent to Afghanistan without any impediments.” So far nothing came.
From China, on Sept. 30, the first batch of humanitarian assistance worth $31 million reached Afghanistan, including blankets and jackets, with winter near approach. While China’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu said that Beijing would be providing more assistance, Acting Minister of Refugee Affairs of the Afghan caretaker government Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani described China as a “good neighbor and friend of Afghanistan” and expressed the hope that China would continue to support the country. Maini similarly reports aid from neighbors India and Pakistan, and from Russia.
Maini concludes that “there is a clear difference between Washington and Beijing as far as sanctions against the Taliban and Afghan Central Bank reserves are concerned. Addressing the G20 Foreign Ministers on 23 September, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that all sanctions against Afghanistan should be removed and that the foreign reserves of Afghan Central Bank should be released by the U.S. and not utilized as a means of exerting political pressure.”