The Islamic Emirate’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi says military equipment left behind in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal in 2021 now belongs to the Afghan government.
Speaking to CBS News, Balkhi said the Islamic Emirate was not seeking to negotiate or trade over the equipment, which it considers government assets.
“This equipment now belongs to the Afghan government, and we are not seeking to make deals or trade over the assets of the Afghan government,” he said.
Asked about the equipment being purchased with US taxpayers’ money, Balkhi said the United States had carried out extensive military operations in Afghanistan, resulting in deaths and widespread destruction.
“Shouldn’t the Americans first pay the cost for these actions?” he asked.
Much of the equipment in question was not directly operated by US forces. It was provided by the United States to the former Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) over nearly two decades as part of efforts to build Afghanistan’s military and security capabilities.
The US Department of Defense reported that about $18.6 billion worth of equipment had been transferred to the ANDSF between 2005 and August 2021. Of that, approximately $7.1 billion in defence equipment remained in Afghanistan when the former Afghan government collapsed and the Islamic Emirate took control in August 2021.
The equipment included tens of thousands of vehicles, hundreds of thousands of weapons, night-vision devices, communications equipment and aircraft. US authorities also disabled or destroyed some equipment during the final withdrawal from Kabul.
US officials have previously argued that the equipment was intended for the former Afghan security forces and was not meant to be transferred to the Islamic Emirate. The collapse of those forces, however, left much of the equipment under the control of the new authorities.
US watchdogs have also noted longstanding difficulties in accurately tracking equipment supplied to the Afghan security forces, making it difficult to establish exactly what remained operational or in the country when the former government fell.
