WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury issued a general license on Friday that allows international aid organisations and private companies to transact with Afghan governments.

This new license marks a change in U.S. policies that has impeded normal commerce with Afghan government agencies led by U.S. sanctioned Taliban leaders and Haqani Network members since August when the Islamists took power.

The ban on transactions with leaders or other individuals who are sanctioned is still in effect. It also prohibits the transfer of luxury goods.

A senior official from the administration told journalists on a conference phone that while the Taliban sanctions remain in effect, the license allows private aid organisations and companies to work with the governing Afghan institutions. This also facilitates them paying customs duties and fees.

Some experts question whether the sanctioned Taliban or Haqqani network leaders cannot benefit from transactions with agencies that they control, without effective oversight mechanisms.

According to U.S. officials, the new license was part of ongoing U.S. efforts in containing an economic crisis that accelerated after Washington and other donor cut financial aid supporting 75 percent of Afghanistan’s public expenditures.

Wally Adeyemo (Deputy Treasury Secretary) stated that the government’s actions today acknowledge that there is a dire crisis and it is crucial that we deal with concerns about sanctions affecting financial and commercial activity.

A cut in financial assistance and the freeze on Afghan central bank accounts of around $9 billion – $7B by Washington – have fuelled a cash crunch. This has created a humanitarian emergency that, according to the United Nations, has driven over half of Afghanistan’s 39 million inhabitants towards starvation.

The U.S. President Joe Biden has ordered the sequestration of half of the $7billion frozen in New York’s Federal Reserve Bank for the possible purpose of rehabilitating the bankrupted Afghan central banks.