BSS :
Talks between the United States and the Taliban continued in Doha earlier this week to discuss earthquake aid, the State Department said Friday, months after the two parties last meet in the Qatari capital in March.
The Taliban is seeking a way to unlock some the country’s foreign reserves — currently frozen by the United States — following a devastating earthquake last month, with the United States looking for assurances the money would go to help the population.
During the meetings Wednesday and Thursday, the United States reiterated an earlier pledge of $55 million in new assistance for earthquake relief, the State Department said in a statement Friday.
And “the two sides discussed in detail US actions to preserve $3.5 billion in Afghan central bank reserves for the benefit of the Afghan people,” the statement said, money which the White House said last week the US was “urgently” working to sort out.
