The US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), John Sopko, said the aid pledged by the international community to the people of Afghanistan will be wasted unless the assistance is delivered directly to the needy people in the country.

Talking at a virtual conference hosted by the Atlantic Council on Thursday, Sopko said the Islamic Emirate or other actors should not have access to the aid and it must be channeled directly to the people by international organizations.

“The unvarnished truth is that we can send all the money in the world into Afghanistan, but it will be a tragedy if that money winds up in the hands of the Taliban or other bad actors, other than the Afghan people who need it the most,” he said.

Sopko called on the international community to deliver its assistance to the people of Afghanistan using the lessons learned from the past two decades of US engagement in the country. “Look for activities that the Afghans can eventually sustain without, or with limited, outside support,” he said.

The Islamic Emirate, however, said that to improve the economic situation of the country the US should unfreeze Afghan bank’s assets and the international community should support Afghanistan economically.

“Considering the situation that we have today, it is required that our money should be released, and we should be supported in the development sphere also,” Islamic Emirate deputy spokesman Bilal Karimi said.

Although the international community has made pledges, so far only a portion of the pledged aid has arrived in the country, mostly through UN agencies.