Taliban Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi: U.S. Should Unfreeze Afghan Funds; We Should Sit At The Negotiations Table, Establish Relations With The U.S.

The Taliban's Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, said in an August 15, 2022 interview on Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar) that frozen Afghan funds held by the U.S. belong to the Afghan people and that the U.S. should reexamine its position and lift the sanctions on these funds. He also said that the Taliban and the U.S. should sit down at the negotiations table and establish relations because American pressure on Afghanistan isn't "helpful" and because the Afghan people have suffered from war and constant American bombardment for decades.

Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi: "The [funds frozen in the U.S.] belong to the people of Afghanistan, and to our national bank. The United States had frozen these funds, and many times we have called for these sanctions to be lifted. We expect the U.S. to reexamine its position with regard to these funds, and to lift these sanctions.

"We have talked about this a lot with the American representative in Afghanistan. The United States must accept the rights of the Afghan people, and lift the sanctions on these funds, because the Afghan people have suffered for four decades from the horrors of war and destruction, and there was a continuous bombardment by the United States.

"In addition, many Afghans were imprisoned. I believe that the suffering of the Afghan people over 20 years is enough — the horrors of war, the bombardment, the destruction... I believe the time has come to establish a relationship between the two sides, because the pressure is not helpful, as we have seen for the past 20 years. We must sit down at the negotiations table, in order to build a relationship between the United States and us."