US Insists on Closing Taliban Office in New YorkThe United States on Monday reiterated here that Afghanistan's largest warring party the Taliban must close its representative office in New York.Speaking to the press before the United Nations Security Council met on Afghanistan, US ambassador to the United Nations Nancy Soderberg said the members of the Security Council were unanimous in demanding that the Taliban comply with all its resolutions adopted so far. "The US government informed the Taliban on February 8 of the need to close its offices here in the United States," she said. Despite Taliban's threat to shut the UN office in Kabul, Afghanistan, the ambassador said, "They must be closed, they will be closed." On December 19, the 15-member Security Council adopted a resolution, calling upon all UN member states to close immediately and completely all Taliban offices in their territories. The call is part of new sanction measures imposed on the Taliban to force it to hand over Saudi dissent Osama bin Laden who is charged by the United States with plotting the bombings of two US embassies in Africa in 1998, which killed at least 225 people and wounded more than 4,000. So far the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden, saying that the United States has offered it no proof of his involvement in the bombings. |
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