Toomey: Lifting Sanctions on Taliban Would Be a Grave Mistake
Warns $7.5 Billion Held at NY Fed Could Be Released To Terror Group If Admin Recognizes Taliban as New Government
Washington, D.C. – In his opening statement during today’s U.S. Senate Banking Committee hearing, Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) implored the Biden administration not to bestow international legitimacy on the Taliban—a brutal, murderous, terrorist group intertwined with al Qaeda—and provide them sanctions relief.
Ranking
Member Toomey’s remarks, as prepared for delivery:
Mr.
Chairman, thank you.
Last
month, we all watched in horror as chaos unfolded at Kabul’s airport. This
administration’s flawed decisions resulted in an utterly catastrophic
evacuation from Afghanistan. Responsibility for this withdrawal—notwithstanding
our severely flawed negotiations with the Taliban under the previous
administration—lies with President Biden.
To
be clear, I felt at the time and still believe that it was wrong for the
previous administration to negotiate with the Taliban to the exclusion of the
legitimately-elected Afghan government, and to agree to a full withdrawal of
U.S. troops. However, at least that agreement was conditioned on the Taliban
fulfilling certain political commitments, including achieving a “permanent and
comprehensive ceasefire,” and agreeing upon a “political roadmap” for
Afghanistan’s future. Since it’s universally acknowledged that the Taliban
failed to live up to these conditions, the Biden administration could have
chosen a different path and adjusted their withdrawal plan without even having
violated the prior agreement. Tragically, they did not.
We
know from recent congressional testimony that President Biden ignored the
counsel of DOD officials to keep a military presence in the country longer. We
also know from recent media reporting that the DOD urged the administration to
begin the evacuation of Americans months earlier. Had the president listened to
this advice, America could’ve ended—not continued, as the president claims, but
responsibly ended—our involvement in this war on our own terms. Instead, the
terms of our chaotic exit were set by the Taliban, a terrorist group we’ve been
at war with for 20 years.
Amazingly,
the administration entrusted the “safe passage” of Americans, green card
holders, and vulnerable Afghans to evacuate the country to the Taliban, and did
not publicly question or challenge the Taliban’s threats that we depart by
August 31st. So it’s no wonder that, contrary to President Biden’s
assertion that the U.S. would stay until every American was able to leave,
hundreds of American citizens and legal permanent residents were left
behind—including Pennsylvanians.
One
such Pennsylvanian American citizen, a mother of four, works at a middle school
in the Lehigh Valley. During the evacuation operations in Kabul, she repeatedly
tried and failed to make it to the airport. Once she was teargassed. Another
time she nearly had her passport seized by a Taliban militant. She was just
blocks away when the suicide attack at the airport killed 13 U.S. service
members and nearly 200 Afghans.
The
only way she escaped Afghanistan was because a veterans’ group operating on the
ground found her, protected her, and got her on a flight on September 10th.
It’s unbelievable to me that a group of Americans—civilians—had to save this
woman’s life because her own government abandoned her. And now, as a direct
result of the humiliating unnecessary surrender in Afghanistan, a massive
humanitarian disaster appears likely to descend on the Afghan people.
Today,
thousands of Americans, green card holders, and Afghan special immigrant visa
applicants, who aided the U.S. military, and their families are still trying to
escape this disaster. And, of course, the Afghan people, including vulnerable
women, girls, and minorities now face violence, systematic repression, and the
denial of their basic rights under Taliban rule—something they have not known
for two decades.
The
Biden administration has said repeatedly that the Taliban must cut ties with
terrorist groups, ensure the rights of women and girls, conduct no revenge
killings against our Afghan partners, and allow Americans, green card holders,
and SIVs and their families to leave the country freely.
As
we will hear today, the Taliban is failing on all of these fronts. They are a
brutal, murderous, terrorist group intertwined with al Qaeda. And yet, the
administration’s current posture seems based on the naïve hope that the Taliban
will reform itself now that they have taken power.
The
administration may feel pressured to provide sanctions relief to the Taliban to
address the acute humanitarian crisis emerging in Afghanistan. But bestowing
international legitimacy on the Taliban and allowing them access to $7.5
billion dollars at the New York Fed would be a grave mistake. We should be
exploring ways to help the Afghan people without empowering the Taliban.
Today
we will consider critical issues that will determine whether and how the
administration will engage with the Taliban, including the status of sanctions
on the Taliban, which is a Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization,
now that it controls Afghanistan; the interconnectedness of al Qaeda and the
Haqqani Network with the Taliban and any new sanctions that should be imposed
on these groups; the acute risk of Afghanistan becoming an epicenter of money
laundering and terrorist financing; Treasury’s policies permitting humanitarian
aid to continue flowing to the Afghan people; the current and future status of
the $7.5 billion in Afghan foreign reserves kept at the New York Fed; and
Afghanistan’s $500 million in Special Drawing Rights held at the IMF.
I
look forward to hearing from today’s witnesses about these issues.
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