Pakistan To Seek Less Pressure On Afghanistan's Taliban
ISLAMABAD (News Agencies) - Pakistan will strive to "persuade" the international community to engage, rather than isolate, Afghanistan's ruling Taliban religious militia, the country's foreign minister said Saturday.
"It is time that we do what we can do to persuade the world community to engage with the government of Afghanistan," Abdul Sattar told state-run television.
He said Pakistan would enter into "very close" consultations with the Taliban to reduce "the pressure the world community is generating to the determinant of the government and people of Afghanistan."
Islamabad will follow a "pro-active policy on Afghanistan to reduce the pressure on Taliban and persuade the international community to continue its assistance to the suffering Afghans."
Pakistan, an ally of the Taliban, has said it would comply with tough new U.N. sanctions against the ruling militia but has called them counter-productive and one-sided.
The sanctions took effect Friday on the expiry of a month-long deadline for the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden and close alleged paramilitary training camps.
Bin Laden is wanted by the United States for allegedly masterminding the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed more than 200 people.
The Taliban says the United States has failed to provide evidence proving its allegations against bin Laden.
Both the Taliban and Pakistan have said the sanctions would aggravate the sufferings of the Afghan people, although the United States has said the curbs were tailored to hit only the militia regime.
In addition to an embargo on arms supplies to the Taliban, the United Nations has banned foreign travel by its leaders, ordered its overseas offices to be closed, and frozen bin Laden's assets.
In November 1999, the United Nations slapped a ban on Afghanistan's Ariana Airlines's overseas flights, and froze Taliban bank accounts after they refused to surrender bin Laden.
However, foreign office spokesman Riaz Mohammad Khan said Islamabad hoped the Taliban would "make every effort to address legitimate concerns of the international community."
