US eases restrictions on humanitarian aid to Afghans
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WASHINGTON • The administration of US President Joe Biden has taken steps to ease the pressure that sanctions on the Taliban are having on Afghanistan, as the combination of the Covid-19 pandemic, a severe drought, the loss of foreign aid and frozen currency reserves left the country's economy on the brink of collapse.
The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan has put the Biden administration on the defensive three months after the Taliban assumed power in Afghanistan.
A thicket of US and international sanctions that were designed to cut the Taliban off from the international financial system has left the entire country with a cash shortage, crippling banks and businesses and sending prices soaring.
The United States does not recognise the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
Following the group's takeover this year, the Biden administration froze US$9.5 billion (S$12.9 billion) of Afghanistan's foreign reserves, stopped sending shipments of dollars to Afghanistan's central bank and pressured the International Monetary Fund to delay plans to transmit emergency reserve funds to the country.
The Treasury Department said on Wednesday that it was issuing new "general licences" that would make it easier for non-governmental organisations, international aid groups and the US government to provide relief to the Afghan people while maintaining economic pressure on the Taliban.
"The United States is the largest single provider of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. We are committed to supporting the people of Afghanistan, which is why Treasury is taking these additional steps to facilitate assistance," Mr Wally Adeyemo, the deputy Treasury secretary, said in a statement.
Mr Adeyemo said the Treasury Department was providing "broad authorisations" that would allow relief to flow to the Afghan people.
The general licences allow financial transactions involving the Taliban and members of the Haqqani network as long as the money is used for things such as projects to meet basic human needs, civil society development and environmental and natural resource protection.
NYTIMES
