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UAE snaps diplomatic ties with Taleban

The United Arab Emirates, one of only three countries to have recognised the Taleban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, on Saturday snapped all diplomatic relations with Kandahar, further isolating the country.

The move comes as a major setback to the Taleban at a time when it is involved in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with a worldwide anti-terrorism coalition led by the United States.

A spokesman of the UAE foreign ministry said the decision came in the wake of the Taleban's refusal to hand Saudi fugitive and suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden over to the international community.

The Taleban's ambassador to Abu Dhabi returned home at the end of last year and was not replaced. Charge d'affaires Hafiz Azizurahman was in charge of the embassy in the UAE capital.

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are now the only two countries to maintain diplomatic relations with the fundamentalist Islamic regime. The former downgraded the ties to charge d'affaires level in 1998 in protest against the Taleban's refusal to extradite Laden following the bombing of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

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