Saudi Arabia severs ties with Taliban

Saudi Arabia severed all ties with Afghanistan’s Taliban Government today, accusing it of using its land to harbour terrorists.

The move leaves Pakistan as the only nation in the world to maintain ties with the Taliban, and leaves Afghanistan’s hardline Islamic regime ever more isolated in its showdown with the United States over Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden, a Saudi dissident and the United States’ chief suspect in the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, lives in exile in Afghanistan.

In a statement carried on the official Saudi news agency, the Saudi Government said the Taliban ‘‘is continuing to use its land to harbour, arm and encourage those criminals who carry out terrorist attacks that frighten the innocent and spread horror and destruction in the world’’.

The attacks ‘‘defame Islam and defame Muslims’ reputation in the world’’, the statement said.