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Taliban Ordered To Close U.S. Office As Offers To Try Bin Laden In Islamic Country
WASHINGTON & ISLAMABAD, Feb 9 (News Agencies) - The United States has ordered the Taliban to close its New York office in line with sanctions which punish the Afghan rulers for harboring Osama bin Laden, officials said Friday.
The Taliban's representative in the United States, Abdul Hakim Mujahid, was reminded of the conditions of the sanctions on Thursday at a State Department meeting, spokesman Richard Boucher said.
"Among these steps is the requirement to close any Taliban office in the United States," said Boucher.
"That means that the Taliban will no longer be able to maintain their office in New York."
The Taliban was required to close its offices abroad by United Nations resolution 1333, passed in December, which boosted sanctions against the Taliban following its refusal to hand over bin Laden.
The package also tightened the ban on flights from Afghanistan, imposed an arms embargo and froze the assets of both bin Laden and the Taliban.
Mujahid was reminded of the closure order at the meeting with acting Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Alan Eastham.
He delivered a letter from the Taliban to Secretary of State Colin Powell which officials said detailed what the militia sees as injustices perpetrated against it by the previous U.S. administration.
The U.N. sanctions reiterated a demand that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden, the Saudi dissident and billionaire indicted in the United States for his alleged role in U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa in 1998.
The Taliban had earlier on Friday reiterated its willingness to discuss sending bin Laden for trial by Muslim clerics in an Islamic country, a Pakistani official said.
An interior ministry spokesman said the militia voiced its preparedness to consider such a proposal in talks with visiting Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider in Afghanistan this week.
"They are prepared to talk about handing over Osama to a third country ... if they are convinced that he will be given a fair trial," spokesman Tahir Khushnood said.
"They are prepared to talk if the U.S. is prepared to talk."
The United States has previously rejected the idea, which the Taliban has suggested in the past as a way of breaking the bitter deadlock over the bin Laden issue.
A U.S. court has indicted bin Laden to stand trial for the twin U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa, but the Taliban insist he is a "guest" in Afghanistan and there is no evidence against him.
The trial of four of his alleged associates, who have pleaded not guilty, has already begun in New York. Of 18 others who have been charged, one has pleaded guilty.
Washington has asked Pakistan to use its influence with the Taliban to secure bin Laden's extradition, but Islamabad insists it is a matter for negotiations between the United States and Afghanistan.
Pakistan is the militia's closest ally and one of only three countries that recognize the Taliban as the official authority in Afghanistan.
Khushnood said Pakistan was prepared to "mediate" between the Taliban and Washington on the third-party idea, but not on other matters.
Haider this week became the first high-level Pakistani official to visit Afghanistan since military ruler General Prevez Musharraf seized power here in a coup in October 1999.
He returned late Thursday having met Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel and presented a letter from Musharraf to supreme Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar in Kandahar.
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