Recent reports have uncovered that the World Bank is currently exploring loopholes to evade U.S. sanctions against the Taliban in order to hand the new terrorist regime a whopping $500 million from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund.
The World Bank, a financial lending organization that offers loans and grants to governments, claim that its board members had an informal meeting last week to discuss how they could redirect half-a-billion dollars out of the ARTF and get it into the hands of the current Afghanistan government. The plan has supposedly been in the works for some weeks as the Biden administration and United Nations prepare the necessary framework.
Decisions to redirect money currently in the ARTF require the ubiquitous approval of all the fund’s donors, and America is the largest stakeholder in this case. As such, the World Bank is seeking out ways to “get the funds into Afghanistan without exposing… financial institutions involved to U.S. sanctions.”
A U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed to reporters that the Biden administration is currently cooperating with the World Bank on how to get the funds released to the Taliban.
While the World Bank has openly confirmed their activities to reporters, the United Nations has declined to comment on the matter at all.
The UK has been talking to the Taliban, the UK defence secretary has said, as he defended President Biden’s handling of the withdrawal. https://t.co/idEdCuJK6b
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) August 16, 2021
The ARTF was established in 2002 for the purpose of giving Afghanistan’s government a “coordinated financing mechanism… [for] national investment programs.” As of the current moment, the ARTF website notes that all disbursements have been frozen since the overthrow of the former Afghanistan government by the Taliban.
In the 19 years since its creation, the ARTF was responsible for a full 30% of the nation’s civilian budget, and the single greatest source of funding for the government. According to a Reuters report, the entire Afghanistan government operated at a level of “70 percent… foreign aid.”
After the Taliban deposed the U.S.-backed government on August 15th under the supervision of Democrat President Joe Biden, the World Bank froze their disbursements from the fund. The U.S. set sanctions in place that prevent the Taliban from accessing $9.5 billion in reserves from the World Bank.
Biden’s government has failed to label the Taliban as an official terrorist organization, though it has imposed several sanctions. As a general mater, the U.S. only considers Pakistani Taliban to be terrorists, but does not recognize Afghanistan’s Taliban as such.
The Taliban terrorist organization is strutting and bragging that the Biden administration has agreed to provide aid to Afghanistan. https://t.co/5X1hHMUPTY
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 12, 2021
Author: Andrew Bryant
