As Afghanistan faces a humanitarian disaster, the UN is struggling with the dilemma of how to provide aid while complying with Taliban policies that violate the UN Charter. The UN is grappling with the near-starvation of the Afghan people and the horrific treatment of women under Taliban rule, with no obvious solutions or good outcomes. If the UN stays, it risks becoming a tool of the Taliban, while calling an end to its mission would leave the country’s 40 million people to the violent, lawless regime. U.N. agencies in Afghanistan are reportedly unable to agree on a unified way forward, which is a gift to the Taliban. The divided vision among UN member states plays into the Taliban’s hands, enabling them to entrench power while enforcing edicts that have made Afghanistan the only country in the world where girls are banned from secondary school and university, where women are not permitted to work, and schools are being transformed into madrassas drilling boys on the Quran. A closed-door meeting in Doha hosted by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, with representatives from 21 countries and two multilateral organizations hopes to find a way out of this dilemma, but it is doubtful it will come up with a meaningful joint statement, let alone a viable plan. Weekly cash deliveries of $40 million flown in by the UN are about the only thing keeping the currency stable, and neighboring states are already gaming out the country’s collapse, commissioning assessments of possible scenarios, from Taliban loss of control to civil war to an exodus of refugees.