Some Western countries have expressed their deep concern about the presence of extremist groups in Afghanistan, and said that the Taliban movement is not fulfilling its commitments related to combating terrorism.
The envoys of the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States met on Afghanistan last week, and issued a statement on Thursday saying that the presence of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri - who was recently killed in a US strike - in Afghanistan shows that the Taliban is not living up to its obligations.
The statement stressed the need for "the Taliban to take continuous and verifiable steps against terrorist groups and their activities," and said, "We are deeply concerned about the continued presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan, including Al-Qaeda."
It is noteworthy that the United States of America announced in the middle of this month that it will transfer $ 3.5 billion of the assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan to a new trust fund based in Switzerland.
The US State Department said - in a statement - that Washington is "committed to supporting the Afghan people in light of the ongoing economic and humanitarian crises, and that by executive order President Joe Biden has kept $3.5 billion in Central Bank of Afghanistan reserves out of the hands of the Taliban."
But the statement stressed, on the other hand, that the Taliban is not part of the "Afghan Fund" that intends to address the acute effects of the economic and humanitarian crisis in the Asian country.
The United States froze $7 billion of Afghan Central Bank assets held in New York in August 2021, when American forces withdrew from Afghanistan.