Biden administration faces big choices as economic calamity hangs over Afghanistan

The dangerous economic climate poses a major dilemma for the Biden administration as it tries to maintain leverage over the Taliban without exacerbating the severe economic conditions that threaten to immiserate millions of Afghan citizens. Biden administration officials are monitoring the situation closely and have said they will resume the flow of humanitarian aid, but they have not signaled how they plan to proceed.

Senior officials in Afghanistan’s toppled government have warned in recent days that parts of the nation’s economy are on the brink of devastation, given the country’s high dependence on international funding. Acting central bank governor Ajmal Ahmady, who recently fled the country, said in an interview that the nation’s economy faces severe strains as foreign capital and aid are choked off.

Similarly, Wahid Majrooh, the acting minister of public health in Afghanistan, told The Washington Post that he is “deeply, deeply concerned” about cuts in international aid and funding for the Afghan government’s national health-care system. Majrooh said in an interview that he is already facing shortages of critical medical supplies such as bandages, sutures, syringes, catheters and other “basic supplies for emergency rooms.” He said he is pleading with international officials to maintain public health funding for Afghanistan, despite the Taliban takeover, but has largely not yet received a clear response.