AQINA, Afghanistan, Nov 18 (NNN-BIA) – Aqina is a border crossing with rail service connecting Afghanistan to Turkmenistan and onward to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Europe. It is an essential trading point linking Afghanistan with countries to the west.
A handful of local businessmen met to drink tea, complained about worsened business situation. Their business are destroyed, after the freezing of Afghan assets by Washington.
“Our business is a failure. We cannot get money from the banks, so we can’t import enough goods. Business has never been worse,” said Aqina oil importer, Mohammad Daud Niazi.
Niazi’s business is all but non-existent, after the U.S. freezing over nine billion U.S. dollars, belonging to the Afghan central bank, following the takeover by the Taliban in mid-Aug.
Washington withdrew all U.S. forces in Afghanistan in Aug leaving behind political uncertainty, extreme poverty, economic instability, and pretty much bankrupting the country and leaving the people to clean up the mess.
Many Afghans blame the chaotic situation in part on the U.S. freezing of Afghanistan’s central bank assets, which prompted local people to withdraw whatever they can from banks. To avoid bankruptcy, the central bank placed severe restrictions on withdrawals.
“We can’t withdraw enough money and so can’t import enough goods,” another trader, Abdul Rashid said. “Every day we can import up to five wagons of flour from Turkmenistan. We have no money to do anything else.”
It’s a similar story for the customs department in Aqina. Mawlawi Jawid, also blamed the United States. “We used to import flour, wheat, oil and gas from Turkmenistan by truck and rail,” he said. The official also confirmed that up to 500 tonnes of fuel is imported every day.
The Taliban caretaker government, whose formation was announced on Sept 7, has repeatedly called upon the United States to unfreeze assets with aid agencies, warning of acute food shortages for more than 22 million Afghans in the coming winter.– NNN-BIA
