The United Arab Emirates, one of only three countries to have diplomatic relations with the Islamic Taliban regime in Kabul, is "reviewing" those ties following the terror attacks on the United States, an Emirati official said Saturday.
"The United Arab Emirates is reviewing relations with Afghanistan after the latest developments," the official told AFP.
He noted that Abu Dhabi had followed UN sanctions imposed on the Taliban at the end of 2000 for failing to hand over wanted Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden, today the main suspect for the September 11 outrages on New York and Washington.
The UAE, where some 110,000 Afghans live, halted an air link between Dubai and Kabul in November last year as the sanctions came into force.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are the only states which have Taliban embassies on their soil. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi however downgraded the relationship to the level of charge d'affaires in 1998 in protest at the Taliban's refusal to give up bin Laden.
The comments came after President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan told US President George Bush the Emirates was ready to join a campaign against terorism.
The UAE is also probing whether a suspect in the anti-US attacks was an Emirati citizen.
Abu Dhabi has confirmed that a UAE citizen named Marwan al-Shehhi studied in Germany, but said it was uncertain whether he was the man identified as a suspect in the suicide jetliner bombings of the World Trade Center in New York.
A UAE official also said a second suspect identified by German authorities as Mohamed Atta was not a UAE citizen.
Hamburg state Interior Minister Olaf Scholz said Thursday two of the prime suspects in a German probe of the deadly attacks in the US had registered with German police as citizens from the UAE.
The UAE's official WAM news agency reported that UAE security authorities had on Thursday summoned a number of presumed acquaintances of Shehhi in an effort to gather information about him.
In a letter, Sheikh Zayed expressed "the willingness of the Emirates to take part in any campaign aimed at eradicating terrorism in all its forms."
Sheikh Zayed also paid tribute to Bush for calling Thursday on Americans "not to exploit the tragic events as a pretext for hostile acts against Arabs and American Muslims."
"We agree with you that the crimes which have been perpetrated are totally contrary to the precepts of Islam and we can only thank you for these wise statements," said the letter released by WAM.
Bin Laden is still in Afghanistan, the Taliban regime's charge d'affaires in the Emirates said Saturday.
"Osama bin Laden is still in Afghanistan," Aziz Al-Rahman told AFP by telephone, adding that he was free to stay or leave.
"If he wants to leave we will not stop him. But if he wants to stay, we will not make him leave. He is the guest of our people," he said.
The United States has threatened to attack any country that has harboured or supported those responsible for the devastating attacks that left thousands dead.
Rumours are rife that bin Laden has been on the move since the US attacks, but no one outside his inner circle is said to know exactly where he is. Some say even the Taliban are unaware of his movements.
After he became the United States' most wanted terrorist in the wake of the 1998 twin US embassy bombings in East Africa -- which led to US missile strikes on his camps in Khost -- the militia put a price on his protection.
He was denied the use of phones and faxes, according to the Taliban, and was strictly forbidden to use Afghanistan to launch any operations overseas -- ABU DHABI (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
