Saudi Arabia Cuts Ties With Taliban

The Associated Press
Tuesday, September 25, 2001; 3:40 AM

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates –– Saudi Arabia cut all ties with Afghanistan's Taliban government on Tuesday, saying Afghan leaders were defaming Islam by harboring and supporting terrorists.

The move by one of the most influential nations in the Islamic world leaves Pakistan as the only country to maintain diplomatic relations with the Taliban, and hands the United States a major success in its bid to isolate the hard-line Islamic Taliban militia over their refusal to surrender Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden, a Saudi dissident and the United States' chief suspect in Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, lives in exile in Afghanistan.

The Saudi kingdom accused the Taliban of continuing "to use their land to harbor, arm and encourage those criminals who carry out terrorist attacks which frighten the innocent and spread horror and destruction in the world."

The attacks "defame Islam and defame Muslims' reputation in the world," the government said, in a statement carried on the official Saudi news agency.

Since seizing power in 1996, the Taliban have made the Central Asian country "a center for attracting, training and recruiting a number of deceived people from different nationalities, especially citizens of the kingdom, in order to carry out criminal acts that violate any faith and creed," the Saudis said.

It accused the Taliban of resisting all urgings to "hand over those criminals to justice," including, most recently, appeals by the Pakistan government.

Saudi Arabia insisted it would stand by the Afghan people themselves, and work for whatever would achieve security and prosperity for Afghans.

Only three nations recognized the Taliban when they seized control in Afghanistan – Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.

Under intense U.S. lobbying, the Emirates shut the Afghan Embassy in Dubai on Saturday, and announced it was severing diplomatic relations with the Taliban.

Pakistan withdrew its last diplomats from Kabul, the Afghan capital, over the weekend. But Pakistan reaffirmed Tuesday that it would keep relations with the Taliban.

"We are maintaining diplomatic ties. Their embassy is still open," Foreign Ministry spokesman Riaz Mohammad Khan said.

Pakistan has agreed to support the U.S. military campaign against bin Laden and his Taliban allies, and the weekend removal of diplomats appeared to reflect concerns over their safety if the United States launches air strikes.

Tuesday's move by Mideast leader Saudi Arabia marks a major step forward for the United States in its effort to put pressure on and isolate the Taliban, which have refused to hand over bin Laden absent proof of his guilt in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Taliban officials said Monday they have been unable to locate bin Laden for the past three days. They said they have been trying to find him to deliver a message from a grand Islamic council asking him to leave the country voluntarily.

Saudi Arabia cut back diplomatic ties with the Taliban in 1998, expelling the Afghan charge d'affaires in Riyadh and recalling its representative from Kabul. The Afghan charge d'affaires in Riyadh said at the time that the Saudi move came because his country was harboring bin Laden.