The appeasement of Nazi Germany in the 1930s spectacularly failed in its attempt to prevent the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1938, after British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain agreed to the fatal compromise on Czechoslovakia’s German-speaking Sudetenland at Munich, Winston Churchill said: “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.” War broke out a year later after Germany invaded Poland. The rest is history, and its consequences were devastating.

Three-quarters of a century down the line, yet another appeasement is now in play. This time, Iran is the aggressor and the US the appeaser.

The venue is Vienna and the end goal less than ideal: To delay the possibility of Iran acquiring a weapon of mass destruction, rather than permanently cap its ability to do so. President Barack Obama tried before, fueling Iran’s aggression across the region. His Democratic successor, Joe Biden, is now trying again, overlooking the consequences of this aggression.

This month’s meeting in Islamabad of foreign ministers from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation created a viable mechanism to ameliorate the worsening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

A humanitarian trust fund will start channelling financial support through the Islamic Development Bank from March, an emergency food program comes into action instantly, and a special envoy is appointed to coordinate humanitarian and political affairs with the Taliban regime.

These tangible steps were urgently needed, as the Afghan humanitarian situation has consistently deteriorated since the Taliban takeover in August and the onset of winter. The UN Food Program estimates that nearly half the population faces acute food insecurity, and the UN Development Program forecasts that 97 percent of Afghans could plunge into poverty by the middle of next year.