Global Policy Forum

By Amir Zia

The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Wednesday criticized tough, new United Nations sanctions, while Pakistan, their strongest ally, promised to enforce them.

As a result of the sanctions, Pakistan may ask the Taliban to reduce its diplomatic corps at its mission in Islamabad, the English-language newspaper, The News, quoted Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Inam-ul Haq as saying. ''Pakistan is a member of the international community and will fulfill its obligations,'' Haq was quoted as saying by the paper.

The Taliban said they expect Pakistan to abide by the sanctions. As a member of the international community Pakistan ''has no choice but to adhere to the sanctions,'' Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, told a news conference in the Pakistani capital. He said that the sanctions would cause further hardship for Afghanistan, a poor country already devastated by war and the worst drought in 30 years. Zaeef said nearly all of Afghanistan has been effected by the drought and as many as 2 million people face serious malnutrition. The value of the currency has nose-dived because of sanctions, sending the cost of essentials like medicine soaring, he said.

Broad new U.N. sanctions, to take effect later this week, call for a one-sided arms embargo against the Taliban, require the Taliban to reduce its foreign missions, bans travel by Taliban officials and further restricts Afghanistan's national airlines.

Although not intended to hurt ordinary Afghans, most international aid workers have warned that the sanctions will make an already impoverished people feel increasingly isolated. ''We hold the United Nations responsible for the plight of the Afghan people,'' said Zaeef.

The U.N. sanctions are intended to press the Taliban to close suspected training camps for terrorists and hand over Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden, suspected of running a worldwide terrorist network from his bases in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, who rule about 95 percent of Afghanistan, including its capital Kabul, say there are no training camps and refuse to hand over bin Laden demanding proof of his involvement in terrorism.

Washington says bin Laden masterminded the twin bombings of its embassies in East Africa in 1998 that killed 224 people. Bin Laden also is the main suspect in the suicide bombing of a U.S. navy ship off the coast of Yemen last year that killed 17 American sailors.

Pakistan and the Taliban warn that the one-sided arms embargo will exacerbate Afghanistan's civil war because it will allow the northern-based opposition, led by ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani, to rearm and resupply. The Taliban say their opponents are funded and armed by Russia, several Central Asian states and Iran. Pakistan denies supplying weapons to the Taliban

Haq said Pakistan would welcome U.N. monitors along its rugged border with Afghanistan to prove its denial of supplying weapons to the Taliban.

However, it's not clear whether the deeply conservative and religious tribesmen, living along the border, would allow foreign monitors.

The Taliban, who espouse a rigid brand of Islam, are fighting their opponents in pockets of northern Afghanistan. Despite controlling five percent of the country, Rabbani's ousted government still holds the Afghan seat at the United Nations.