World Bank too suspends aid to Afghanistan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 25

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s firefighting mission to get Tajikistan’s assent for a Taliban government in Kabul received a rude shock from its President even as financial problems mounted for Afghanistan with the World Bank stopping aid, days after the International Monetary Fund withheld a loan.

“The World Bank has paused disbursements in our operations in Afghanistan and we are closely monitoring and assessing the situation in line with our internal policies and procedures,” said its spokesperson Marcela Sanchez-Bender. Meanwhile, Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon told Qureshi that it was necessary to establish an inclusive government, especially with the participation of Afghan Tajiks and Dushanbe “will not recognise any other government that will be formed through oppression, without taking into account the position of the entire Afghan people, especially its minorities.” A lengthy statement blamed the Taliban for reneging on its promise to form an interim government with the broad participation of other political forces.

The forthright statement has implications for the Panjshir Valley holdouts led by Tajiks Ahmad Massoud and Amrullah Saleh, who have been joined by some officers of the Afghan army and Uzbek-origin military leaders. The blockade of the Panjshir Valley is raising concern in Tajikistan which shares the same ethnicity.