Spanish
Afghanistan's Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund, asked the United States on Saturday to lift the economic sanctions imposed by Washington and the international community on Afghanistan, after meeting in Kabul with a US delegation headed by the US President's special representative, Donald Trump, for prisoner affairs, Adam Boehler.
"The Deputy Prime Minister, Mullah Baradar Akhund, referring to the sanctions imposed on Afghanistan by the United States and the international community, noted that in some areas the necessary progress has not been achieved due to these economic sanctions," the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs said in a statement posted on X.
Baradar Akhund asked the U.S. to replace confrontation with engagement and highlighted that in areas such as trade, revenue, or monetary stability, Kabul has made progress.
The Taliban urged the United States "to play its role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and to seize existing investment opportunities."
The Taliban have been subject to a strong financial blockade since August 2021. The country was largely disconnected from the international SWIFT banking system after the Taliban returned to power.
Also, the Islamist movement and its leaders remain under sanctions that prohibit financial transactions with them, a measure that has paralyzed the economy and complicated the arrival of direct monetary aid to the de facto government, something that has impacted various areas, such as the recent humanitarian response to the earthquake of August 31 in the east of the country, which left more than 2,200 dead.
According to the Taliban, the US representative said that Afghanistan offers ample investment opportunities in sectors such as mining, energy, agriculture or transport; and affirmed Washington's willingness to cooperate in the Afghan economic sector.
Boehler welcomed Afghanistan's economic advances and stressed that both Washington and Kabul "have properly implemented the Doha Agreement" and that "neither party has violated the pact," according to the statement issued by the Afghan fundamentalists, who have been in power since August 2021, after the withdrawal of US troops from this Asian country after almost two decades of military presence.
Also, the US representative assured that Afghanistan and the United States will exchange prisoners.
