Biden Orders Frozen Afghan Funds Split Between Aid to Afghanistan and 9/11 Victims

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday that will steer frozen assets from Afghanistan’s central bank toward both addressing the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the country and compensating Sept. 11 victims.

The funds were frozen and held in the United States in the wake of the U.S. troop withdrawal and subsequent collapse of the government in Kabul in August.

The order requires the U.S. financial institutions holding the funds to transfer them into a consolidated account held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The total $7 billion—largely made up of donations by the United States and other nations to Afghanistan—will then be split in half, with $3.5 billion of those assets meant for the benefit of the Afghan people. The other $3.5 billion will remain in the United States and go toward a pending judicial decision on whether U.S. 9/11 victims should be compensated by the Taliban—who have been in de facto control of Afghanistan since shortly after the U.S. troop withdrawal.