A Chinese envoy said on Wednesday that the overseas assets that belong to Afghanistan should be returned quickly and in full to the Afghan people.
Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, made the remarks at a Security Council meeting on cooperation between the UN and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
Zhang said the top priority for the international community is to make every effort to avoid a humanitarian crisis in the country.
A worker of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) pushes a wheelbarrow loaded with aid supplies for a displaced Afghan family outside a distribution center on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, October 28, 2021. (File photo)
The comment came days after U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order for diverting $3.5 billion from the frozen Afghan assets to compensate the families of 9/11 terror attacks' victims.
Afghanistan's central bank criticized Washington's plan last Saturday, saying its assets belong to the Afghan people.
"DAB (Da Afghanistan Bank) considers the latest decision of the U.S.A. on blocking FX (foreign exchange) reserves and allocating them to irrelevant purposes, injustice to the people of Afghanistan," the bank said in a statement.
The United States froze over $9 billion worth of assets belonging to the Afghan central bank after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan last August.
