In the face of mass starvation of the Afghan people, described by World Food Program Director David Beasley as the “worst humanitarian crisis on Earth,” in which the next several months will be “catastrophic,” U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan sanctimoniously told CNN interviewer Fareed Zakaria that the U.S. will not release the $9 billion of Afghan reserves that it is holding illegally until the Taliban show “significant improvement” in meeting the conditions the U.S. has spelled out— inclusivity, human rights for women and girls, opposing terrorism, etc.
He insisted that the U.S. is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan than any other country, to the tune of half a billion dollars, which he said is being distributed through international organizations, the UN and other such agencies. In good conscience, he said, shamefully, the U.S. could not give money directly to the Taliban “without creating a circumstance in which some of those funds could be used for purposes that are problematic to the national security interests of the United States.”
Sullivan said all these issues were being discussed with the Taliban, from the U.S. diplomatic office in Doha. However, in an editorial yesterday, Politico, not exactly a bastion of humanist sentiment, said that the U.S. had actually reduced its engagement with the Taliban and had staffed its office in Doha with very low-level State Department personnel. You don’t have to have diplomatic relations with the Taliban to help the Afghan people who are suffering a dire crisis, Politico said, in an uncharacteristic display of empathy.
