International Community in Afghanistan continues....

USA launched its, supposedly, first war on terrorism, by launching a diplomatic mission with its allies in its war against terrorism and pressurized Pakistan’s military leader, General Pervez Musharraf to stop aiding the Taleban and to side with the US. Despite being bolstered by the support of Britain and other Western countries, any US-led military operations in landlocked Afghanistan hinged on the support of Pakistan.

The Pakistani government, particularly its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had nurtured the Taleban, had vested interests in its continued domination of Afghanistan, and was one of only three states to recognize the Taleban as the official regime, the other two being Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Sacrificing Bin Laden for the continuation of the Taleban thus seemed a major Pakistani strategic interest.

But on 18 September 2001 and again on 28 September, Pakistani representatives were unable to convince the Taleban to surrender Bin Laden, and the Taleban signalled the expectation of an attack by closing its air space and putting its defences on war alert. However, in a possible bow to American pressure, a Council of 1,000 clerics agreed to turn over Bin Laden to the US and asked him to leave Afghanistan. The Taleban took the extraordinary measure of overturning that, and downgrading it to a mere ‘suggestion’ unacceptable to them.

The Taleban’s ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, rejected Bush’s demand of the same day for extradition of Bin Laden as ‘an insult of Islam’ and proclaimed ‘We will never surrender to evil and might.’ Whatever diplomatic standing the Taleban had, began to erode. While still recognizing the regime, Pakistani diplomats were withdrawn from Kabul. The United Arab Emirates ended its recognition on 22 September and Saudi Arabia followed three days later, declaring that the Taleban harboured, armed and encouraged terrorists.

To be continued...