The administration of US President Joe Biden is in talks with the Islamic Emirate to create a mechanism by which Afghanistan’s Central Bank will be able to partially use assets while erecting safeguards that would ensure the funds are not siphoned off for misuse by the Islamic Emirate, the Washington Post reported, citing sources privy to the issue.

This comes as a delegation of the Islamic Emirate, led by the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amir Khan Muttaqi, left Kabul on Wednesday for Doha.

“It would be accurate to say negotiations are underway,” said Shah Mehrabi, an economics professor at Montgomery College in Maryland and a senior member of Afghanistan’s Central Bank board since 2002, as quoted by the Washington Post. “We are in the process of trying to come up with a mechanism that will allow the transfer of reserves to the central bank of Afghanistan.”

The Islamic Emirate said that its delegation in Qatar would meet with the US special envoy for Afghanistan Thomas West and officials from the US Department of Treasury.

“The delegation will hold talks with (Thomas West) the US Special envoy for Afghanistan, and US Department of Treasury officials on political, economic, and banking issues,” said Zia Ahmad Takal, deputy spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Central Bank said that efforts are underway to unfreeze the Afghan assets.

“The Afghanistan Bank welcomes any steps which are aimed at releasing Afghan assets. These assets belong to the people of Afghanistan,” said Mohammad Sabir Momand, a spokesman for the Central Bank.

Meanwhile, economists said that if Afghan assets are used as humanitarian aid, the humanitarian crisis will increase.

“The US talks with the Taliban officials about the formation of mechanisms for humanitarian assets is a political and economic tactic; on the one hand they want to show their level of engagement to the (Afghan) government, and on the other hand it is a massive strike on the Afghan economy, particularly the currency,” said Shakir Yaqobi, an economist.

“Allocation of Afghan assets for the humanitarian crisis is a big oppressive action against the people of Afghanistan,” said Rohullah Ahmadzai, an economist.

Earlier, Biden in a decree allocated part of the frozen Afghan assets to be held for possible legal payouts for victims of 9/11, which also faced strong criticism both inside and outside Afghanistan.