随着阿富汗进一步陷入灾难性的人道主义危机，国际社会允许援助团体获得更多豁免，以减轻痛苦。

联合国安理会周三通过了一项决议，同意对塔利班的制裁给予人道主义豁免。阿富汗在与美国支持的政府进行了近20年的战争后，于今年夏天控制了阿富汗。

此外，美国财政部宣布，它已经扩大了一般许可证，以更明确地允许援助团体在阿富汗工作，包括支持民间社会、人权和教育。

尽管这两个步骤都受到欢迎，但许多援助组织、联合国机构和包括民主党人在内的美国议员表示，这还不够，因为阿富汗3900万人口中有一半以上面临严重饥饿。

援助组织国际救援委员会主席兼首席执行官戴维·米利班德(David Miliband)在联合国投票后表示:“虽然这一举措将使人道主义援助大幅增加，但仅靠这一点不足以避免经济崩溃和人道主义瓦解。”。

拜登政府为美国对塔利班的制裁进行了辩护。美国财政部将阿富汗列为恐怖组织。相反，拜登政府将阿富汗的经济困境归咎于阿富汗几十年来对人道主义援助的依赖、持续的干旱和新冠肺炎，以及这个激进组织对该国的接管。

一名高级政府官员表示，美国正在努力缓解危机，但他表示，如果美国想要国际援助，包括确保妇女和女孩的权利、停止报复性杀戮和打击恐怖主义，现在就要由塔利班来治理，应对该国的经济挑战，并履行承诺。

塔利班方面表示，国际制裁必须解除，称之为“对普通民众的惩罚”，用长期发言人苏海尔·沙欣的话来说，尽管该组织的政府不被承认，但塔利班方面已将沙欣任命为他们的联合国大使。

根据一些估计，阿富汗的经济收缩了40%，通货膨胀使许多人无法购买日常用品。占崩溃的前政府资金的75%和该国国内生产总值的40%的外国援助已经停止，政府账户被冻结。银行已经关闭或限制资金的获取，许多全球金融机构害怕与美国和联合国的制裁相冲突。这意味着工资，尤其是教师等公共部门员工的工资，已经几个月没有支付了，失业率飙升。

豪尔赫·席尔瓦/路透社

来自迈丹瓦尔达克省的19岁塔利班成员沙菲乌拉(中)站在检查站

伴随着经济崩溃而来的是真正的痛苦。联合国警告说，到明年，多达90%的阿富汗人可能会陷入贫困，多达100万儿童可能会在今年冬天死于饥饿。

其中可能有穆罕默德，他两岁时只有11磅重，在喀布尔的一家医院里，当他挣扎着吃饭时，可以看到他脸上的骨头。他的母亲买不起他需要的药，他是在全国各地挣扎的许多阿富汗人中的一个男孩。

“上届政府很糟糕，但本届政府更糟糕，因为他们削减了我们的粮食。没有人会怜悯我们，”一位排队领取食品援助的前店主上周告诉美国广播公司新闻。

该政府在应对美国和国际社会对其暴力策略、对妇女和其他少数民族的压制，甚至对其执政能力的担忧方面几乎没有做什么。

但同样明显的是，美国和联合国的制裁减缓了流入该国的现金，包括前政府在世界银行和国际货币基金组织的资金。

上周，美国和其他国家促成了一项协议，从世界银行的资金中向联合国儿童基金会(UNICEF)和世界卫生组织(World Health Organization)转移2.8亿美元，用于提供人道主义援助——这是第一笔此类转移，可以为未来的交易树立一个榜样，但与每个援助团体的需求相比，这只是杯水车薪。

“为了确保人道主义工作能够继续扩大规模，制裁制度不阻碍行动至关重要。人道主义活动所依赖的交易必须得到保障，”联合国救援负责人马丁·格里菲斯周三在推特上说。

民主党议员也加入了这些批评，超过30人在周一的一封信中敦促拜登政府扭转政策，这些政策“可能在未来一年造成比20年战争中更多的平民死亡。”他们呼吁美国向阿富汗央行提供美国持有的98亿美元阿富汗货币储备，并“更明确地保证”给予援助组织运作的空间。

但到目前为止，拜登的团队没有表现出这样做的兴趣。这位高级政府官员对记者说，美国将继续对塔利班及其领导层施加财政压力，因为美国寻求确保资金流向阿富汗人民。

Aid groups get greater leeway to help in Afghanistan amid famine warnings

As Afghanistan spirals further toward a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, the international community is allowing greater exemptions to aid groups to try to alleviate the suffering.

The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution Wednesday to grant humanitarian exemptions to their sanctions on the Taliban, which seized control of Afghanistan this summer after nearly two decades of war with the U.S.-backed government.

In addition, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it has expanded its general licenses to more explicitly allow aid groups to work in Afghanistan, including to support civil society, human rights, and education.

But while both steps were welcomed, many aid groups, U.N. agencies, and U.S. lawmakers, including Democrats, say it is not enough, as more than half of Afghanistan's 39 million people face acute hunger.

"While this move will enable an essential increase in humanitarian aid, this alone is not sufficient to stave off economic collapse and humanitarian unraveling," David Miliband, president and CEO of the aid group International Rescue Committee, said after the U.N. vote.

The Biden administration has defended U.S. sanctions against the Taliban -- designated by the Treasury as a terrorist organization -- and instead blamed Afghanistan's economic woes on decades of dependence on humanitarian aid, an ongoing drought and COVID-19, and the militant group's takeover of the country.

A senior administration official said the U.S. was working to mitigate the crisis, but said it is on the Taliban to govern now, address the country's economic challenges, and meet its commitments if it wants international aid, including on securing women's and girl's rights, halting reprisal killings, and countering terrorism.

The Taliban have said international sanctions must be lifted, calling them "punishment of the common people," in the words of Suhail Shaheen -- a longtime spokesperson who the Taliban have cast as their U.N. ambassador, although the group's government is not recognized.

Afghanistan's economy has contracted by 40 percent, according to some estimates, with inflation now putting everyday items out of reach for many. Foreign aid, which accounted for some 75 percent of the collapsed former government's funding and 40 percent of the country's GDP, has been halted and the government accounts, frozen. Banks have shut down or limited access to funds, with many global financial institutions afraid to run afoul of U.S. and U.N. sanctions. That means salaries, especially for public sector employees like teachers, have not been paid for months, and unemployment has skyrocketed.

With this economic collapse comes real suffering. The U.N. has warned as many as 90 percent of Afghans could be in poverty by next year, and as many as one million children could die this winter from starvation.

Among them could be Mohammed, who at two-years old weighs just 11 pounds -- the bones in his face visible as he struggles to eat in a Kabul hospital. His mother unable to afford the medicine he needs, he is one boy among the many Afghans struggling across the country.

"The previous government was bad, but this government is even worse because they have cut our food. Nobody has mercy on us," a former shopkeeper waiting in line to access food aid told ABC News last week.

That government has done little to deal with U.S. and international concerns about its violent tactics, repression of women and other minorities, and even its ability to govern.

But it's also clear that U.S. and U.N. sanctions have slowed cash flowing into the country, including the former government's funds at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Last week, the U.S. and others facilitated a deal to transfer $280 million from the World Bank's funds to UNICEF and the World Health Organization to provide humanitarian aid -- the first of its kind transfer that could set an example for future transactions, but a drop in the bucket compared to the need, per aid groups.

"To ensure that humanitarian work can continue to scale, it is critical that sanction regimes do not hold back operations. Transactions on which humanitarian activities depend must be safeguarded," the U.N.'s relief chief Martin Griffiths tweeted Wednesday.

Democratic lawmakers have joined those criticisms, with over three dozen urging the Biden administration in a letter Monday to reverse policies that "could cause more civilian deaths in the coming year than were lost in 20 years of war." They called for the U.S. to provide Afghanistan's central bank access to the $9.8 billion of Afghanistan's currency reserves held in the U.S. and "more explicit reassurances" to give aid groups space to operate.

But so far, Biden's team has shown no interest in doing so. The senior administration official told reporters the U.S. will maintain financial pressure on the Taliban and its leadership, as it seeks to ensure money gets to the Afghan people instead.