Taliban will not get access to Afghan reserves held in US: official

WASHINGTON: The Taliban will be denied access to any Afghan reserves held in US accounts, a US administration official told AFP on Monday.

As US forces were evacuating Afghanistan's capital after the Taliban's swift takeover, the official said, "Any Central Bank assets the Afghan government has in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban."

The central bank's gross reserves totalled $9.4 billion at the end of April, according to the International Monetary Fund.

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But most of those funds are held outside of Afghanistan, according to a person familiar with the issue.

It was not immediately clear what share is held in the United States.