VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

To help Afghanistan avoid getting into a humanitarian crisis, the United States finally relaxed its sanctions against Afghanistan. The easing includes supporting U.S. officials and certain international organizations, such as the United Nations -UN, to transact with the Taliban or the Haqqani network for official purposes. Non-governmental organizations are also allowed to cooperate with the Taliban and the Haqqani network in humanitarian activities.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on the Taliban because it was categorized as a terrorist group. They include freezing the Taliban group's assets in the U.S. and barring U.S. citizens from having contact with the Taliban group.

The U.S. decision follows the UN’s plan to pay nearly US$6 million for protection costs in Afghanistan. The proposed funds would be paid next year mostly to subsidize the monthly wages of Taliban fighters guarding theUN’s facilities and to provide them a monthly food allowance under an expansion of an accord with the former U.S.-backed Afghan government. This was reported by Reuters News Agency, Thursday (23/12). However, even though sanctions have been relaxed and humanitarian aid will come in; the U.S. continues to encourage the Taliban group to work on their own in a bid to overcome Afghanistan's collapsed economy.

The United Nations has specific reasons why it is necessary to issue a resolution that resolves donors, aid groups, and financial institutions involved in humanitarian assistance from   the sanctions imposed on the Taliban. This is solely to provide humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people.

On behalf of humanity, what the UN did was right. The country with 39 million people still needs food. Currently, they are struggling hard to overcome the humanitarian crisis and food shortages due to the faltering Afghan economy, because there is no more foreign financial assistance.