SNA (Sydney) — After decades of conflict and military occupations, Afghanistan has yet to emerge from its ongoing humanitarian crisis. The main culprits at this juncture are the poor governance of the ruling Taliban as well as the remarkably hostile policies of the United States and its allies, which are, in effect, waging economic warfare against one of the poorest nations on Earth.

Curiously, the United States is both the single-largest humanitarian donor to Afghanistan as well as the main international force blocking Kabul’s prospects for improving its dire economic conditions.

Last year, the Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), which is the nation’s central bank, controlled over US$7 billion in assets, though they were held in trust by the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. When the Taliban defeated the US-led occupation forces last August, rather than allow the new government to utilize its own national funds, the Biden administration, in an unprecedented move, did not allow the new regime in Kabul to access Afghanistan’s own central bank, making effective economic management of the country impossible.

As justification for this stunning action, the US government cited its distrust of how the Taliban would utilize the money as well as the need to pay off compensation claims by some of its own citizens–relatives of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The first Taliban regime (1996-2001) did not carry out the September 11 attacks, but it refused to turn over Al-Qaida leaders such as Usama Bin Ladin and Ayman al-Zawahiri due to the fact that they were old comrades who had fought side-by-side against the Soviet invasion in the 1980s.

This February, President Biden issued an executive order that would effectively divide the DAB assets in half: US$3.5 billion for September 11 family claims and US$3.5 billion earmarked for “humanitarian assistance” to Afghanistan, although it remains unclear how and when the funds would be distributed.

In other words, one of the richest societies in the world is attempting to carry out a massive bank robbery of one of the world’s poorest societies. It would be a reverse Robin Hood–stealing from the poor to give to the rich.

This controversial decision is facing legal challenges in US courts, especially regarding the question of whether or not the Biden administration truly has the jurisdiction to take over the funds of another nation’s central bank.

Also, a seizure of the bank’s funds would be logical nonsense in respect to the fact that the US government and its allies refuse to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, but would nevertheless feel entitled to strip funds from the Afghan central bank in order to punish the Taliban as if they were indeed the recognized government.

While the mainstream Western media has not focused much public attention the eyebrow-raising nature of the Biden administration actions (certainly not in the terms that we have presented here), the decision has been met with wide criticism from experts and other observers.

John Sifton, the Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, noted last month that “the country’s overall economy and banking system has been almost completely incapacitated by decisions by the US and other governments in August 2021 to cut off Afghanistan’s central bank, officially the Da Afghanistan Bank, from the international banking system. This has led to a massive liquidity crisis and nationwide shortages of banknotes in both US dollars and the Afghan currency.”

He added, “Human Rights Watch opposes broad-based economic sanctions and measures seizing the sovereign wealth of any nation, on the grounds that they represent appropriation of the wealth of the people of a country and typically cause economic harm to the general population.”

Peaceful Tomorrows, one of the organizations founded by family members of those killed on September 11, issued a petition to President Biden in February, which reads, in part:

As family members of September 11 victims, we call on you to affirm that the Afghanistan central bank funds currently being kept in New York belong to the Afghan people. Any use of the US$7 billion to pay off September 11 family member judgments is legally suspect and morally wrong. We call on you to modify your executive order and affirm that the Afghanistan central bank funds belong to the Afghan people and the Afghan people alone.

According to international aid groups, over 90% of Afghan households have not been able to get enough food in the year since the Taliban emerged victorious against the twenty-year US and allied forces occupation of the country. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that tens of thousands of Afghan children are regularly being admitted for emergency medical treatment for acute malnutrition, and that many others in remote areas are unable to get help and have starved to death.

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