UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “encouraged” by Friday’s US decision to free up half of $7 billion in frozen Afghan assets to help the suffering people, while holding the rest to satisfy lawsuits against the Taliban from victims of terrorism, a UN spokesman said. “I think we have said on several occasions and we’ve called for many times the release of Afghanistan’s frozen assets, and I think we’re encouraged by the step taken today in this regard,” Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in response to a question at the regular noon briefing in New York. However, “it’s also important to reiterate that humanitarian assistance alone will be insufficient to meet the tremendous needs of Afghan women, men and children over the long term,” he said. “It is critical that the Afghani economy is able to restart in order for these needs of the Afghan people to be met with a sustainable and meaningful manner,” the spokesman added. On Friday, President Joe Biden signed an executive setting in motion a plan to make $7 billion in Afghan funds held in the United States available to compensate victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, and to provide humanitarian relief and other support to the Afghan people. The funds were deposited by Afghanistan’s central bank in the United States before the Taliban took over last year and have since been made unavailable to the Taliban. Much of the money comes from U.S. and other international donations over the past 20 years. Washington is also working closely with the UN to ensure the world body’s agencies and aid groups have the liquidity needed to support critical humanitarian assistance programs, the White House said. The Taliban were quick in rejecting the U.S. plan. Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s designated U.N. representative, told The Washington Post that “the frozen funds are the reserves of the Afghan central bank. This should be totally unfrozen and transferred to (the) Afghan bank as reserves. We don’t want what the (United States) is planning.” Abdullah Azzam, Secretary to Taliban acting first deputy prime minister Abdul Ghani Baradar, said on Twitter that “Biden doesn’t have the right to pay from Afghans’ assets the ransoms of those whom the Afghans have not killed. American President should not prove his generosity by paying from others’ wealth.”