The United States has authorized some Taliban transactions with the Taliban to continue sending aid to Afghanistan

By Daphne Psaledakis and Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US and UN officials were formally exempted from conducting trade talks with the Taliban on Wednesday to try to maintain the flow of aid from Afghanistan to US sanctions as a deepening humanitarian crisis.

It was unclear, however, whether the move would pave the way for UN $ 6 billion in payments to Islamists for security reasons.

Reuters exclusively reported on Tuesday that a UN plan to subsidize the monthly salaries of Interior Ministry staff managed by the Taliban, which manages UN facilities next year, and to pay them food every month, questioned whether payments would violate U.S. sanctions.

The Treasury Department does not say whether the proposed new license will exempt UN payments from US sanctions against the Taliban.

After years of being named a terrorist group by the Taliban, Washington has ordered a freeze on U.S. goods and banned Americans from being treated.

The Treasury on Wednesday issued three general licenses aimed at easing humanitarian aid flows to Afghanistan.

Two of the licenses allow U.S. officials and some international organizations, such as the United Nations, to conduct transactions in the Taliban or the Haqqani Network for official business.

A third license provides protection to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from sanctions against the U.S. Taliban and the Haqqani Network for working in a variety of activities, including humanitarian projects.

A senior US official said the Taliban should take steps to further shrink the Afghan economy.

“What we are going to try to do is alleviate the humanitarian crisis by providing resources to the people of Afghanistan, and these general licenses will allow us to do exactly that to the organizations that are doing this work,” the official told reporters.

Republican General Secretary of the U.S. House of Representatives has criticized the decision of the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.

That exception “could result in the use of U.S. taxpayer funds to reward, legitimize, and enable the same Taliban who have shown no interest in seizing power and enforcing international rules,” Representative Michael McCaul said in a statement.

The economic crisis in Afghanistan intensified after the Taliban seized power in August, with the fall of the former Western government and the withdrawal of the last US troops.

The United States and other lenders cut funding, and Afghanistan’s hard currency assets froze more than $ 9 billion.

The United Nations says nearly 23 million people – about 55 percent of the population – are suffering from severe hunger, and nearly 9 million are at risk of starvation as winter approaches.

“We will continue to support the efforts of our partners at this time of special need to increase support and provide the necessary assistance,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

In another effort to address the crisis, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution by the Taliban and allied entities involved in humanitarian aid donors, aid groups and financial institutions that were exempting UN assets from freezing.

The exception is “only to provide humanitarian assistance and other activities that support basic human needs in Afghanistan, which the council will review within a year,” said Jeffrey DeLaurentis, chief adviser to the United States mission. of measure.