UN chief urges main Afghan assist enhance, unfreezing belongings

The UN chief urged nations Wednesday to enormously increase humanitarian assist for thousands and thousands of Afghans dwelling in “a frozen hell” and launch practically $9 billion in frozen belongings to drag Afghanistan’s economic system again from the brink of a collapse that would set off a mass exodus of individuals fleeing the nation.

“Time is of the essence,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres informed the Security Council. “Without action, lives will be lost, and despair and extremism will grow.” Guterres mentioned liquidity should be urgently restored to the Afghan economic system. He mentioned which means liberating up the nation’s frozen forex reserves, re-engaging with its Central Bank and discovering othr methods to inject cash, together with permitting worldwide funds to pay the salaries of medical doctors, lecturers, sanitation employees, electricians and different civil servants.ALSO READ | Iranian Foreign Minister to reach in India on SundayChina and Russia reiterated their requires unfreezing Afghan belongings, whereas US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield mentioned the Biden administration is analyzing “various options to ease the liquidity crunch.”She mentioned the United States, which introduced an preliminary contribution of $308 million in humanitarian assist for Afghanistan on January 11, stays the most important supplier of help to the nation. But she mentioned that “much more support from the international community will be required to meet the extraordinary level of need the Afghan people are experiencing.”Afghanistan’s aid-dependent economic system was already stumbling when the Taliban seized energy final August amid the chaotic departure of US and NATO troops after 20 years. The worldwide group froze Afghanistan’s belongings overseas and halted financial help, unwilling to work with the Taliban, given the brutality throughout their 1996-2001 rule and refusal to coach women and permit girls to work.ALSO READ | Fact Check: Old video from Afghanistan handed off as Pakistan’s atrocities in BalochistanGuterres mentioned the World Bank’s reconstruction belief fund for Afghanistan transferred $280 million final month to the UN youngsters’s company UNICEF and the World Food Program. He mentioned the remaining $1.2 million ought to be launched urgently to assist Afghans survive the winter.Deborah Lyons, the UN particular consultant for Afghanistan, informed the council that the greater than $4.4 billion humanitarian enchantment the UN launched two weeks in the past for Afghanistan — the most important within the UN’s historical past for a single nation — “is roughly the same amount that donors spent on the entire operating budget of the government.” Most of that funds help got here from the United States.The UN says 8.7 million Afghans are getting ready to hunger, and Guterres mentioned over half the inhabitants faces “extreme levels of hunger.””More than 80% of the population relies on contaminated drinking water, and some families are selling their babies to purchase food,” he mentioned.The council adopted a decision final month affirming that humanitarian assist to Afghans does not violate sanctions towards the Taliban, however China’s UN ambassador, Zhang Jun, claimed assist “is being used as a bargaining chip, a political tool.”ALSO READ | Islamic State claims accountability for assault in Herat, AfghanistanThat’s “playing games with the lives and well-being of 38 million Afghans who are in dire need of relief,” Zhang mentioned, saying that freezing Afghan belongings and unilateral sanctions “are no less lethal than military intervention.”If Afghan girls “can’t even have food or survive, then the talk of education, employment and political participation will become empty words,” he added.Deputy Russian Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky warned that until the problem of unfreezing Afghanistan’s belongings is rapidly solved “Afghanistan has no long-term prospects to make it out of this crisis.””We call on the United States and other Western donors to get the money back to the country,” he mentioned. “The money belongs to the Afghan people and cannot be used for bargaining or as a tool to punish the Afghans for the new reality that has evolved in their country.”Polyansky warned that the results of Afghanistan’s financial collapse is not going to solely enhance the variety of refugees however will “spread terrorist activity, boost drug production and, as a result, lead to even greater instability both in the region and beyond.” Lyons, the UN envoy, mentioned in a video briefing from Kabul that it’s clear donors are nonetheless not glad with political progress by the Taliban, both in together with larger ethnic range in its authorities or in making certain women’ increased schooling and ladies’s alternatives to work.This week, a high-level Taliban delegation met with Afghan civil society representatives within the Norwegian capital, Oslo.Lyons famous {that a} joint communique from the talks highlighted that “understanding and joint cooperation are the only solutions to all the problems of Afghanistan.” She mentioned now the Taliban “must act on it.”Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, whose nation holds the Security Council presidency this month and chaired the assembly, mentioned the Taliban delegation additionally held direct talks with representatives from Norway, the US, France and Britain, however he pressured that didn’t signify recognition of the Taliban authorities.”We have to talk to them, engage them and present very clear expectations, because Afghanistan is today facing a dire humanitarian crisis and a million children may starve,” Støre mentioned in an interview with The Associated Press.He mentioned there have been no negotiations, no settlement signed, however the talks so far as he may see had been “the beginning of something that can lead to something.”