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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (728083)	2/26/2006 12:36:24 PM
From: PROLIFE	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

U.A.E. Taliban Recognition Likely Pragmatic DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The United Arab Emirates was one of only three countries that recognized the Taliban militia as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan in the 1990s, linking the Perian Gulf nation to one of the world's most hard-line regimes. The recognition came in part because of a request from Pakistan, the Taliban's main sponsor, one analyst said. The Emirates also wanted to see a stable Sunni Muslim government in Afghanistan to balance mainly Shiite Iran, a top rival of Arab Gulf nations. "There was intense coordination between Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. Pakistan asked the Emirates to support the Taliban, and the politicians here, after meeting with Taliban leaders here, agreed," political analyst Abdul Khaleq Abdulla told The Associated Press. He said the recognition also was aimed at putting an end to a civil war that ravaged Afghanistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989, and that the Taliban appeared to be in the best position to control the country. "Little did they know that the regime would turn out the way it did," Abdulla said. In addition to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan also recognized the Taliban after they seized the Afghan capital Kabul in 1996. All three countries cut ties with the Taliban after it sheltered al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The Saudis, officially and privately, sent millions of dollars to the Taliban, and Pakistan was instrumental in the rise of the Taliban in the early 1990s, helping fund and organize the militia. The Emirati government did not provide such large official aid, though private individuals did give an unknown amount of funds. Before the Sept. 11 attacks, Emirati officials would often go to Afghanistan as guests of the Taliban to take part in hunting and falconing trips. The Emirates is a major transit point for goods destined for Afghanistan, and is home to more than 70,000 Afghans, most of whom are laborers in the wealthy Gulf state. In recognizing the hard-line Afghan regime, the UAE also may have been seeking a counterbalance to Iran, a bitter enemy of the Taliban. The UAE has a decades-old dispute over several Persian Gulf islands held by Iran; like other Gulf nations, it fears Iranian influence over the area. The Taliban _ who hosted bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network before being driven from power by a U.S.-led coalition in late 2001 _ follow the hard-line Wahhabi branch of Sunni Islam, also adhered to in Saudi Arabia. Most Emirati nationals are Sunni Muslims and many of them are Wahhabis. Abdulla said the UAE recognition likely would not have happened without at least tacit approval from the United States, which had worked closely with Pakistan and Afghan fighters against the Soviet occupation. "Islamabad and Washington have been close allies, and the United States at the time saw the Taliban as the group that could control Afghanistan and stop the fighting," he said. © 2006 Associated Press. NewsMax.com Wires Saturday, Feb. 25, 2006