https://sputnikglobe.com/20220517/us-takes-sole-responsibility-for-afghan-embassy-consulates-after-us-backed-gov-runs-out-of-money-1095588759.html
US Takes ‘Sole Responsibility’ for Afghan Embassy, Consulates After US-Backed Gov Runs Out of Money
US Takes ‘Sole Responsibility’ for Afghan Embassy, Consulates After US-Backed Gov Runs Out of Money
Sputnik International
The US State Department said on Tuesday it was taking over the Afghan embassy in Washington, DC, and consulates in New York and California, the latest stage of... 17.05.2022, Sputnik International
2022-05-17T22:52+0000
2022-05-17T22:52+0000
2022-05-17T22:52+0000
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For months, the roughly 100 diplomats who operate three Afghan diplomatic facilities in the US lived on their savings and without paying their facilities’ bills, pledging to keep processing Afghan migrants’ paperwork until the lights went out.On Monday, the lights finally went out.A department official told AP that the facilities faced “severe financial constraints that made continued operations unsustainable.”The legality of the move is unclear, but could potentially violate the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which established the international legal principle that embassies and consulates are inviolable, even in times of war. A similar situation unfolded in April and May 2019 when the US seized several Venezuelan diplomatic offices and its Washington, DC, embassy, the latter of which was defended for more than three weeks by a collective of antiwar activists. The US justified the move by saying that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was not the country’s leader, but rather a no-name opposition politician named Juan Guaido.The US has refused to recognize the Taliban as the new Afghan government after the Islamist militant group captured Kabul in August 2021, sending the US-backed government fleeing into exile. In response, the US froze the account of the Afghan Central Bank and threatened penalties against banks that refused to do the same for other Afghan government accounts. Citibank complied, blocking access to the embassy’s accounts in January.The following month, the Biden administration announced its intention to take half of the money in the Afghan Central Bank’s account and distribute it to families of 9/11 victims as compensation for the 2001 terrorist attacks planned by Al-Qaeda** in Afghanistan the last time it was ruled by the Taliban.After the Taliban seized power, international aid that had propped up the Afghan economy disappeared, sending the underdeveloped Central Asian country into an economic freefall. Between the loss of 43% of its gross domestic product and the loss of $8.5 billion in central bank deposits, hunger has become nearly universal in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, with tens of thousands of newborns dying of hunger since the start of 2022.*A group under United Nations sanction, which is banned in many countries**A terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries
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US Takes ‘Sole Responsibility’ for Afghan Embassy, Consulates After US-Backed Gov Runs Out of Money
The US State Department said on Tuesday it was taking over the Afghan embassy in Washington, DC, and consulates in New York and California, the latest stage of the decaying Washington-Kabul relations since the Taliban* seized power last August.
For months, the roughly 100 diplomats who operate three Afghan diplomatic facilities in the US lived on their savings and without paying their facilities’ bills, pledging to keep processing Afghan migrants’ paperwork
until the lights went out.
On Monday, the lights finally went out.
“Until further notice, the Department of State’s Office of Foreign Missions has assumed sole responsibility for ensuring the protection and preservation of the property of the referenced missions, including but not limited to all real and tangible property, furnishings, archives, and financial assets of the Afghan Embassy or its consular posts in the United States,” the department said in a notice viewed by
the Associated Press. It will be published on Wednesday in the Federal Register.
A department official told AP that the facilities faced “severe financial constraints that made continued operations unsustainable.”
The legality of the move is unclear, but could potentially violate the
1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which established the international legal principle that embassies and consulates are inviolable, even in times of war.
A similar situation unfolded in April and May 2019 when the US seized several Venezuelan diplomatic offices and its Washington, DC, embassy, the latter of which was
defended for more than three weeks by a collective of antiwar activists. The US justified the move by saying that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was not the country’s leader, but rather a no-name opposition politician named Juan Guaido.
The US has refused to recognize the Taliban as the new Afghan government after the Islamist militant group captured Kabul in August 2021, sending the US-backed government fleeing into exile. In response, the US froze the account of the Afghan Central Bank and threatened penalties against banks that refused to do the same for other Afghan government accounts.
Citibank complied, blocking access to the embassy’s accounts in January.
The following month, the Biden administration announced its intention to
take half of the money in the Afghan Central Bank’s account and distribute it to families of 9/11 victims as compensation for the 2001 terrorist attacks planned by Al-Qaeda** in Afghanistan the last time it was ruled by the Taliban.
After the Taliban seized power, international aid that had propped up the Afghan economy disappeared, sending the underdeveloped Central Asian country
into an economic freefall. Between the loss of 43% of its gross domestic product and the loss of $8.5 billion in central bank deposits, hunger has become nearly universal in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, with tens of thousands of
newborns dying of hunger since the start of 2022.
*A group under United Nations sanction, which is banned in many countries
**A terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries
