US government creates pathway to send aid to Afghanistan despite sanctions

The US Treasury Department on Wednesday announced it was issuing special licenses to ensure that some international aid could flow to Afghanistan, which faces a crisis as its economy collapsed following the Taliban takeover in August.

The licenses will enable the US government, international organizations such as the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations to operate in the country and offer humanitarian assistance despite sanctions. They will also allow Afghans living abroad to send money to their families in Afghanistan through remittances.

The US government has labelled Afghanistan’s Taliban and the related Haqqani network as terrorists, severely restricting their access to global institutions and the outside money that supported the country’s economy before the withdrawal of US forces this year and the swift demise of its previous government.

Biden administration officials face the awkward task of trying to help the Afghan people without also funding a Taliban government that the US-led coalition supplanted after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and then fought for roughly 20 years.

As much as 80 percent of Afghanistan’s budget comes from the international community. Without greater access to foreign money, the Afghan economy is likely to contract by about 30 percent this year - furthering the humanitarian crisis.

The US government plans to provide Afghanistan with an additional 1 million vaccine doses in the coming weeks, according to senior administration officials who insisted on anonymity to discuss the plans. That brings the total US donations for Afghanistan to 4.3 million doses, though the country has an estimated population of about 40 million.

Earlier in December, the US government worked to transfer $280 million from the World Bank's Afghanistan reconstruction trust fund to UN organizations to address health and nutrition needs in the country.