A spokesman for the US Department of State, Ned Price, said that the US is “urgently working to address concerns about the use of the licensed $3.5 billion in Afghan central bank reserves to ensure, to see to it, that they benefit the people of Afghanistan and not the Taliban. “

He made the remarks at a press conference in Washington.

“We’re working with Afghans, we’re working with local partners at the technical level, to address underlying macroeconomic issues, which will provide, we believe, necessary stability for the current humanitarian response to be more effective, and it will alleviate many of the issues that fueled the humanitarian crisis we see today,” Price told the reporters. ”So these talks are ongoing. As soon as we have an update, be happy to let you know.”

Meanwhile, the Islamic Emirate once again called for the release of the Afghan assets.

“The Afghan assets which are frozen by the US are the economic savings of Afghanistan which should be given back to the Afghans. We are trying to proceed using all mechanisms to unfreeze the assets,” said Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesman for the Islamic Emirate.

Meanwhile, dozens of residents of Khost province held demonstrations in the provincial capital to protest the freezing of Afghan bank assets, and they said that foreign countries committed war crimes in Afghanistan and should pay compensation.

“The US will not unfreeze our frozen assets so we can address our problems. The US and international community are responsible for the hunger and poverty in the country,” said Mohammad Rauf, a protestor.

“We call for its release. It is the right of the Afghans,” said Saif Nangial, a protestor.

The Afghanistan’s central bank has yet to comment in this regard.

Earlier, US President Joe Biden issued an executive order to move some $7 billion of the Afghan central bank’s assets frozen in the US banking system to fund humanitarian relief in Afghanistan and compensate victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.