Saudi Arabia announced yesterday that it had broken off diplomatic relations with the Taliban regime for harbouring "terrorists", leaving Kabul further isolated from the outside world.
"The Saudi government announces that all relations with the Taliban are cut," said an official statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
The decision had been taken because the Taliban had not answered "contacts and initiatives undertaken by Saudi Arabia to convince them to stop harbouring and training terrorists".
Riyadh "deplored ... (the Taliban) had made their land a reception, training and recruitment centre for a number of lost people of every nationality, particularly Saudis, so that they carry out criminal acts contrary to every religion, and at the same time refuse to turnover these criminals to justice."
Saudi Arabia followed the United Arab Emirates, which broke off ties with the Islamic militia on Saturday after failing to persuade Kabul to hand over Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect for the September 11th bombings in the United States.
Pakistan is now the only country to maintain relations with the regime, but it announced on Monday that all its staff had been withdrawn from the embassy in Kabul for safety reasons, as US forces prepared for military strikes against Afghanistan.
"The Taliban government continues to use its territory to harbour, arm and encourage criminals to carry out criminal operations against innocent people ... which damages Islam and the image of Muslims across the world," the Saudi statement said.
Riyadh opened diplomatic relations with the Taliban in May 1997, as did Abu Dhabi and Islamabad, the only three governments to recognise the regime.
Saudi Arabia downgraded ties with Kabul to chargΘ d'affaires level in 1998 in protest at the refusal to hand over bin Laden. Since then the mission has been limited to matters such as renewing passports for the approximately 200,000 Afghan residents of the kingdom.