LETTER | On Feb 11, 2022, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order "setting in motion a  plan to make US$7 billion in Afghan funds held in the United States available to compensate the  victims of 9/11 attacks, and to provide humanitarian relief and other support to the Afghan  people dealing with crushing hunger."

The funds will be split into two portions, US$3.5 billion of assets will be used to fund victims of 9/11 attacks and the remaining US$3.5 billion will be used to fund Afghan relief and basic needs.

The Taliban Qatar based spokesperson, Mohammad  Naeem, condemned the US move, calling it “theft” and a sign of the “lowest level of human  and moral decay.” Not only him but Afghans around the world enraged by Biden's decision,  some call it "unfair and immoral."

The former Afghan president Hamid Karzai called it "unfair and unjust" and urged the US president to rescind it.

Reacting to Biden's decision, Dr Rangin  Dadfar Spanta, Afghanistan's former foreign minister and security adviser, apologised to the  Afghan people, saying, "I feel guilty that I considered the US government a friend and ally of  Afghanistan." 

Even some victims of the 9/11 attacks, as reported by New York Times, are not happy with Biden’s decision and want “all the money should go to benefit Afghans.”

For instance, Barry  Amundson, whose brother Craig was killed in the Pentagon that day, said: “I can’t think of a  worse betrayal of the people of Afghanistan than to freeze their assets and give it to 9/11  families. While 9/11 families are seeking justice for their loss through [law] suits, I fear that  the end result of seizing this money will be to cause further harm to innocent Afghans who  have already suffered greatly.”

In fact, it is not appropriate for a rich and industrialised country like the US to resort to a decision that provokes so much anger that demonstrators in Kabul carry a placard reading, "The United States has stolen Afghanistan's money." 

Biden’s controversial decision ostensibly blames the Taliban, now the de facto government of Afghanistan, for the 9/11 attacks. This is not right. The enemy who attacked the US was not the state of Afghanistan but a group of individuals who were not even Afghans.

So on what basis does the US hold Afghanistan responsible for the 9/11 attacks? What happened on  Sept 11 was morally, religiously, and legally wrong, but who carried out the heinous attacks that destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City, damaged the Pentagon and killed nearly 3,000 people?

Well, the attackers were individual militants who used their four hijacked planes as a deadly weapon to carry out the attack in a suicide mission. None of these people was Afghan. America knows this.

They were from other countries and the US is well aware of their nationality, so there is no need to mention where these people came from, but I can say with complete certainty that they were not from Afghanistan.

They were said to be linked to al-Qaeda, an "extremist militant group," whose leader Osama bin Laden was allegedly sheltered by the Taliban in Afghanistan.  

Why should Afghanistan be held responsible?

The conduct of the al-Qaeda affiliated militant individuals triggered the so-called “war on terrorism”, but the main victims of that “failed war” were the people of Afghanistan.

On Oct 7, 2001 the US invaded Afghanistan “to avenge the al-Qaeda-orchestrated 9/11 terrorist attacks.” This invasion, which was in violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, as it was not specifically mandated by the UN, and was not universally perceived to be a legitimate  form of self-defence under the UN Charter, had a primary goal that is “to hunt down Osama and punish the Taliban.”

In early December 2001, the Taliban regime was deposed, though they now returned to power, it took the US around ten years to hunt down Osama and on May 2, 2011 he was killed when the US Navy Seals raided his home “in Abbottabad, Pakistan.” 

International law does not allow a state to invade another state because of criminal attacks by some individuals or terrorist groups.

The 9/11 attacks were criminal attacks, not armed attacks by Afghanistan, after all, Afghanistan was not and still is not capable of attacking the US.

So, why should Afghanistan be held responsible for a wrong, which was carried out by some others whose identities and countries of origin are known to the US?

It should be Afghanistan to claim compensation for the losses in terms of human lives, destruction of properties and loss of economic opportunities, not the other way round. 

However, Afghanistan has not yet claimed compensation and probably will not, but in any  case, the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks must be held accountable and compensate their victims.

Every wrongful conduct entails the responsibility of the wrongdoer, but that wrongdoer is neither Afghanistan nor its people. Yes, the Taliban allegedly sheltered the al-Qaeda leader. Though he was eventually killed in another country, they did not authorise that group to  carry out attacks against the US.

On what basis, then, should the Taliban or Afghanistan be  held accountable for wrongs committed by individuals who were from other countries? 

Assuming that the Taliban were somehow involved in the wrongdoing, which they deny, then why should the Afghan people be punished for the Taliban's misdeeds?

The seized funds  belong to the Central Bank of Afghanistan called Da Afghanistan Bank.

Once a de jure government is established in Afghanistan, the US must return the seized funds in full to that bank for justice to be done.

MOHAMMAD NAQIB EISHAN JAN is a professor at the International Islamic University of Malaysia.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.