Kabul

Afghanistan's former president Hamid Karzai said the $7 billion frozen assets belong to no government, but to the people of Afghanistan and sought their return to the country.

This comes after US President Biden on Friday signed an executive order to free $7 billion dollars out of more than $9 billion frozen Afghan assets, splitting the money between humanitarian aid for Afghanistan and a fund for 9/11 victims.

At a press conference in Kabul, Karzai called on the US government to “return all of the funds to Afghanistan's central bank."

He also said the people of Afghanistan have backed the Islamic Emirate’s demand for the return of all the frozen funds. If funds are returned, he said, they should not be spent on daily expenses but be preserved, and more funds should be added, Tolo reported.

He also that Afghans are paying the price for Pakistan’s links with slain Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden who once operated out of Afghanistan.

"Osama bin Laden was not brought to Afghanistan by Afghans. He was brought in by foreigners from Pakistan and then he returned to Pakistan. Osama bin Laden was killed on Pakistan soil, but now the Afghan people are paying the price for Pakistan's actions," Tolo News quoted Karzai as saying.

Earlier, Afghanistan's central bank also criticized the US decision to split $7 billion of the frozen Afghan assets and said it is an "injustice" to the people of Afghanistan.

"Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) considers the latest decision of USA on blocking FX (foreign exchange) reserves and allocating them to irrelevant purposes, injustice to the people of Afghanistan," DAB, Central Bank of Afghanistan, said in a statement.

"DAB will never accept if the FX reserves of Afghanistan are paid under the name of compensation or humanitarian assistance to others and wants the reversal of the decision and release of all FX reserves of Afghanistan," the statement added.

Afghanistan's banking system remains crippled after the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban in mid-August last year.

A combination of a suspension of foreign aid, the freezing of Afghan government assets, and international sanctions on the Taliban have plunged the country, already suffering from high poverty levels, into a full-blown economic crisis.