Anger is growing in Afghanistan over US President Joe Biden's decision to withhold frozen Afghan foreign reserves for relatives of the September 11, 2001 victims.

Thousands of demonstrators roamed the streets of the capital Kabul on Tuesday, venting their anger.

Local media quoted protesters as saying that Afghanistan had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks.

Alexander Haneke

Editor in Politics.

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Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai called it "wrong, unfair and cruel to the Afghan people" to withhold the money in a press conference.

The people of Afghanistan were also victims of the September 11 attacks, he said.

In a statement Monday night, the ruling Taliban even questioned the Doha peace accords, threatening to reconsider their policy toward the United States if Washington stood by its position.

$3.5 billion withheld for 9/11 families

The White House announced President Biden's decision on Friday to use half of the $7 billion frozen in America for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.

The other half is being withheld for possible compensation payments that US courts may award to families of the September 11 victims in a series of claims for damages.

Although there were no Afghans among the assassins who hijacked several American airliners in 2001 and steered them into the towers of New York's World Trade Center, among other things, the Taliban had al-Qaeda boss Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan during their first rule from 1996 to 2001 granted refuge from where he is said to have planned the attack on the United States.

In addition, after the attacks, the Islamists refused to extradite Bin Laden because they did not provide sufficient evidence against him, which led to the American-led coalition invading Afghanistan and the fall of the first Taliban rule at the end of 2001.

Federal government is examining how it intends to deal with Afghan reserves

After the Islamists took power in Afghanistan again in August last year, many countries froze the foreign reserves of the Afghan central bank in their countries.

In all, it's about $9 billion, of which $7 billion is in the United States.

Another two billion dollars are located in Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and also in Germany.

According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Government is still examining how it intends to proceed with the Afghan central bank's reserves in Germany.

Most recently, the demand, directed primarily at America, to release this money had become louder, since Afghanistan's economy, which is heavily dependent on imports, has practically collapsed due to the lack of foreign exchange,

Most recently, in December, the American government eased sanctions against the Taliban to facilitate humanitarian aid for people in need.

Until then, the sanctions regime had made it almost impossible, even for aid organizations, to transfer money to Afghanistan.

Some of the salaries in the healthcare system are now paid directly by international donors, without the ruling Islamists having access to it.

The federal government can also imagine a similar model for the education sector.

For example, she could transfer salaries directly to the teachers via the children's charity UNICEF if the Taliban meet basic demands in return, such as opening schools to girls in all years.

The UN estimates that Afghanistan will receive 4 aid this year,