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America's New War: Taliban Responds to United States

Aired September 21, 2001 - 06:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The Taliban making it perfectly clear this morning, Leon, that they were speaking to the United States and they were speaking to Muslims around the world.

CNN's Nic Robertson is monitoring these developments from Quetta in Pakistan, and he joins us now. Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, since the Afghanistan's Islamic scholars made their recommendations to the Taliban Thursday, the ball has really been in the court of the Taliban leadership to say whether or not they will act on those recommendations.

And today it was very clear in a press conference in Pakistan the Taliban ambassador here, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, said that the Taliban would not be following the recommendation of the Islamic clerics and would not be asking Osama bin Laden to leave, that they would not be handing him over for trial.

He did, however, say that the United States, if it had proof and evidence, should provide it and then the Taliban would be willing to consider assisting in a trial of Osama bin Laden.

He also went further. He said that if a non Islamic country, the United States, was to attack an Islamic country, Afghanistan, then it would be a call for a jihad, a holy war, and that it would be a responsibility not only of Muslims in Afghanistan, he said, but also of Muslims around the world to assist in that.

And in a reference to Pakistan providing intelligence information, he said that if a Muslim was involved in espionage against the Muslim country, then the penalty for that would be death.

He also recommended that the United Nations looked at the speech of President Bush. He said this speech had sparked Muslims all over the world, indicating, he said, that it made Muslims angry having listened to the speech of President Bush.

These were the things that he talked about today and it was very, very clear that this was going to be the final word at this stage from the Taliban on the issue of Osama bin Laden. Very much that they wouldn't follow the recommendation of the 600 Islamic scholars in Afghanistan, that they would stick it out, that the Taliban would remain by the position that they've always had that Osama bin Laden is a guest of the country and they would not be, at this stage, asking him to leave.

LIN: Nic Robertson reporting live from Quetta in Pakistan -- Leon.

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