Frozen Afghan Funds Have Done Little to Sway Taliban

The U.S. has stepped up use of economic sanctions and asset seizures in the past two years as a foreign-policy mechanism against Afghanistan as well as Russia. In the case of Afghanistan, those tools have so far shown little efficacy under Taliban rule—and could take years to work if they work at all, people close to the situation say.

“The U.S. and the international community need to figure out additional incentives and punitive measures to impact Taliban behavior,” said Alex Zerden, a former U.S. Treasury attaché in Kabul and now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank in Washington, D.C. The promise of money now frozen in Switzerland has so far done little to sway the Taliban, he said.

The U.S. froze Afghanistan’s central bank reserves in 2021 after the Taliban swept into Kabul and toppled the U.S.-backed government.

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