UNITED NATIONS: The United States needs to give written encouragement to banks to transfer money to Afghanistan for the United Nations and aid groups as they race to save millions of lives, the head of a top international aid group told Reuters on Thursday.
Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary General Jan Egeland, who was UN aid chief from 2003-06, was blunt in his assessment: “It is now, paradoxically, the Western sanctions that is our main problem in saving lives in Afghanistan.”
The Taliban, which has long been blacklisted by the United States as a terrorist group, seized power from Afghanistan’s internationally-backed government in August. Billions of dollars in Afghan central bank reserves and international development aid were frozen to prevent it from falling into Taliban hands.
The United Nations and aid groups are struggling to get enough money into Afghanistan to fund operations in a country where millions are suffering extreme hunger and the economy, education and social services are on the brink of collapse.
In a briefing to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Afghanistan was “hanging by a thread” and that a lack of liquidity in the country was limiting capacity to reach people in need. Washington issued sanctions exemptions — known as general licenses — last month related to humanitarian work. But Egeland said that was not enough to convince international banks they could avoid the “wrath” of Washington if they transferred funds to Afghanistan for aid groups, and he urged the Treasury to issue something specific in writing.
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