The Biden administration has frozen billions of dollars in Afghan foreign exchange reserves and other assets held in U.S. bank accounts following the Taliban’s takeover of the government by the Taliban, a report said on Tuesday.

The freeze was implemented on Sunday following discussions between Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other officials in the treasury and state departments, according to The Washington Post.

While these talks were taking place, the Taliban invaded Kabul, completing a 96-hour drive through Afghanistan that dealt a fatal blow to the West-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani.

The Afghan central bank held $ 9.4 billion in reserve assets, just under half of the country’s gross domestic product in 2019. Most of this money is held outside Afghanistan’s borders, although it is not known how much it is in the United States, the newspaper said, citing the International Monetary Fund.

The decision to freeze assets is likely to put additional pressure on the already fragile Afghan economy and increase the need for the United States to step up humanitarian assistance to a population once again under Taliban rule.

In June, the State Department announced more than $ 266 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, bringing the total since 2002 to $ 3.9 billion. President Biden on Monday pledged that the United States “will continue to support the Afghan people” and “lead with our diplomacy, international influence and humanitarian aid.”

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan hinted to reporters on Tuesday that the United States could use sanctions to force the Taliban to walk away from some of the most oppressive policies of their first term in charge of Afghanistan. Current US economic sanctions prohibit US citizens from engaging in “any deal or transaction” with the Taliban.

“The reason I don’t want to go into detail is that I want to be able to have our team communicate directly to the Taliban both what the costs and the disincentives are for certain types of action and what are the our expectations, ”says Sullivan. “This is a conversation that we will be planning to have, and I think many other countries, including like-minded allies and partners, will have it as well.”

With foreign currency reserves out of their reach, the Taliban are likely to resort to the fundraising methods they used during their first term in power from 1996 to 2001: taxation of the opium and heroin trade. , as well as illegal mining. It is also possible that Chinese or Russian companies are trying to gauge the regime’s interest in mineral or fuel development concessions.