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Saturday, Feb. 10, 2001

Ironically, the message was delivered Thursday in a meeting the Taliban had hoped would pave the way for warmer ties between Kabul and Washington. The group's U.N. representative, Abdul Hakeem Mujahid, met with the State Department's acting chief for South Asian Affairs, Alan Eastham, to deliver a letter from his foreign ministry that "insists on friendly relations and building trust between our two countries," Mujahid told United Press International. "The letter also mentioned the previous government did not do anything to solve the problems between us."

But Eastham took the opportunity to remind Mujahid how the panoply of new sanctions the U.N. resolution passed last year affects his country, according to State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

"The Taliban will no longer be able to maintain its office in New York so we are going to carry that through," Boucher told reporters Friday. "We also went through other steps they have to take to comply fully, like turning over [Osama] bin Laden for prosecution, shutting down training camps."

Mujahid said Eastham told him to await regulations that would be mailed to the Taliban's New York office regarding the U.N. requirement to close it. "We are waiting for the regulations, and we will comply with the regulations," Mujahid said.

The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution on Dec. 20 that imposes what amounts to a one-sided arms embargo on the Taliban, the force that controls over 95 percent of Afghanistan, allowing Russia and Iran to funnel guns to their chief opposition, the Northern Alliance.

The U.N. sanctions also reaffirm a flight ban against the Afghan Ariana Airlines and limit the travel of senior Afghani officials. The resolution passed by a vote of 13 to 0 in the Security Council over an abstention from China and the objections of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The resolution was passed just months after the Taliban launched an effort to receive official U.N. recognition and a seat representing Afghanistan in that body. Despite a tour of Western capitals from the Taliban's deputy foreign minister, the campaign has seemed to have little effect.

Nonetheless, U.S. officials have met frequently with Taliban representatives in Islamabad and Washington to discuss ways to apprehend Osama bin Laden, the Saudi born terrorist who the United States believes plotted the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

While the Taliban have proposed that Bin Laden be tried through an Islamic Court, Washington insists he be extradited for trial. This week, the Pakistani government offered to try Bin Laden as a possible compromise.

Mujahid said he was not aware of Pakistan's offer. But Boucher said Friday of the proposal, "As long as it is in the scope of the U.N. resolutions...any idea which leads to the expulsion of Osama Bin Laden to a country where he can be brought to trial probably deserves attention."

Copyright 2000 by United Press International.

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