The Interview – Hamid Karzai criticises US move to divide Afghan assets between aid and 9/11 victims
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Six months after the Taliban retook Afghanistan, FRANCE 24 spoke to former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who remains in the country. Karzai strongly criticised the Biden administration’s recent decision to unfreeze Afghan assets but divide the funds between aid to Afghanistan and victims of the 9/11 attacks, saying the funds “belong to the Afghan people”. He also said he believed the Taliban would eventually allow girls to return to school, since doing so is “absolutely necessary for the well-being” of Afghanistan.
In an interview with FRANCE 24, former Afghan president Hamid Karzai urged the Biden administration to rescind a decision to allocate half the $7 billion in Afghan assets frozen in the US to families of victims of the 9/11 attacks. He said the money belonged to the Afghan people and that it was “wrong” to use it for other purposes.
The former president said that before any international recognition of the Taliban, there was a first of all a need for Afghans from all walks of life to come together and discuss the future of the country. Karzai said he and former chief executive Abdullah Abdullah had formally asked the Taliban to call a traditional high assembly known as a loya jirga and that they were still hoping this would happen.
The former leader said there should be “no compromise” about the full return of girls to school and women to the workplace. Schools are currently scheduled to reopen next month. Karzai expressed confidence that the Taliban would indeed allow girls to go back to school.
Finally, Karzai told FRANCE 24 that in mid-August of 2021, he had negotiated a peaceful transition with the Taliban and then president Ashraf Ghani, but that the accord fell apart when Ghani fled the country.
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