- “I am writing to express my great concern,” Burchett on aid to the Taliban.
- A legislator points to $10 million in foreign aid given to the Taliban in taxes.
- Seeks Trump's support for legislation against support for Kabul.
As Pakistan continues to call on Kabul to prevent terrorist groups from using its territory, a US lawmaker also wrote a letter to President-elect Donald Trump against funding the Afghan Taliban.
“I write to express my great concern about foreign aid being channeled to the [Afghan] Taliban. [….] The United States should not fund its enemies abroad,” wrote US Congressman Tim Burchett in his letter to Trump.
Recalling US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's confirmation during the 118th Congress that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had paid nearly $10 million in foreign aid to the Taliban in taxes, Burchett warned that it was impossible to track shipments of cash after being auctioned.
“This is how the Taliban is financed and this is how terrorism is planned around the world,” the legislator warned, while regretting his failed attempt to introduce legislation in 2023 aimed at “deterring foreign countries from providing support financial or material assistance to the Taliban and to report on direct cash assistance programs and the Taliban's influence over the Central Bank of Afghanistan.”
The letter is important since Trump, who will take over the White House this month after winning the November election last year, is the one whose administration negotiated the “Doha Agreement” with the Afghan Taliban in 2020, which ultimately led to the fall of Kabul a year later in 2021, which coincided with the US withdrawal from the war-torn country under his successor, President Joe Biden.
Expressing his urgency to work with the Trump administration, Congressman Burchett called on the president-elect to “take action and end foreign aid waste.”
He further noted that he intends to reintroduce his legislation on that issue in the 119th Congress and that he would “welcome his [Trump’s] support”.
The US lawmaker's letter, also retweeted by Trump's close aide and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who questioned whether US taxpayer money was being sent to the Taliban, comes in the wake of a rise in terrorist incidents in Pakistan since the interim administration led by the Afghan Taliban. took command in Kabul.
Last month, Pakistani security forces thwarted an infiltration attempt and decisively retaliated against a cross-border attack by militants who launched an unprovoked attack on Pakistani outposts in coordination with the Afghan Taliban.
Islamabad has again urged Kabul not to allow terrorist groups to use its territory to carry out attacks against Pakistan.
“We wish good ties with them [Kabul] but the TTP must be stopped from killing our innocent people. [….] This is our red line,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said at a cabinet meeting in December 2024.
