KABUL, 26 February 2022, (TON): The Biden administration sought to assure financial institutions and other businesses that U.S. sanctions on the Taliban aren’t intended to interfere with trade that could help Afghanistan emerge from an economic and humanitarian crisis.

Senior administration officials said “a so-called general license issued by the Treasury Department expanded the authorization for commercial and financial transactions in Afghanistan in hopes of helping Afghans but not the Taliban.”

It is intended to restart some commercial activity that shut down after the fall of the the U.S.-backed government to the Taliban in August, the officials told reporters.

It's the latest in a series of actions by the administration aimed at alleviating a worsening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where aid groups estimate that nearly 24 million people, more than half the country, face severe hunger and nearly 9 million are on the brink of starvation.

The license authorizes transactions involving Afghanistan or governing institutions in Afghanistan, with the exception of specific Taliban figures under sanctions.

U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power said in a statement “it aims to ensure that U.S. sanctions do not prevent or inhibit the transactions and activities needed to support the basic human needs of the people of Afghanistan.”