The Biden administration on Wednesday took steps to ease the pressure that sanctions on the Taliban are having on Afghanistan as the combination of the pandemic, a severe drought, the loss of foreign aid and frozen currency reserves have left the country’s fragile economy on the brink of collapse.

The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan has put the Biden administration on the defensive 3 months after the Taliban assumed power and US forces left the country.

The US does not recognise the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Following the group’s takeover of the country this year, the Biden administration froze $9.5 billion of Afghanistan’s foreign reserves, stopped sending shipments of dollars to Afghanistan’s central bank and pressured the IMF to delay plans to transmit emergency reserve funds to the country.

The US treasury department said on Wednesday that it was issuing new “general licenses” that would make it easier for non-governmental organisations, international aid groups and the US government to provide relief to the Afghan people while maintaining economic pressure on the Taliban.

“The US is the largest single provider of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. We are committed to supporting the people of Afghanistan, which is why treasury is taking these additional steps to facilitate assistance,” Wally Adeyemo, the deputy treasury secretary, said in a statement.