http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... iracy.html
Afghanistan accuses Jewish and American women of UN conspiracy
By Ahmed Rashid in Lahore
A senior official of Afghanistan's ruling militia, the Taliban, accused American and Jewish women's groups yesterday of turning the United Nations against the regime.
The remarks came at the end of a week in which the Taliban increased their defiance of UN humanitarian relief agencies and imposed further restrictions on foreign aid workers.
Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the Taliban foreign minister, told reporters in Kabul that the breakdown in relations with UN relief agencies was because "the UN could have been influenced by some women's organisations in America that are against the Islamic emirate ... including Jewish ones and possibly from Afghan women with links to the opposition".
His comments will heighten speculation that the Taliban are about to throw out all foreign aid workers and journalists in Afghanistan, despite the country's humanitarian crisis.
Nearly a million Afghans have been displaced by war, drought and famine in recent months. The UN is hard pressed to tackle the crisis because of a shortage of funds and food and restrictions by the Taliban which have angered donor nations. On Wednesday the Taliban banned foreign women aid workers from driving cars in Kabul.
On Tuesday they broke off talks with the UN on allowing a survey of recipients for UN-funded bakeries in Kabul, which feed a third of the city's 1.2 million population, including widows and orphans. The Taliban refused to allow the UN to hire Afghan women to carry out the survey.
Last week the Taliban arrested UN aid workers in Kabul and Herat. Arab militants who fight for the Taliban and are loyal to the wanted Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden have threatened to kidnap and kill aid workers.
The Taliban have generated widespread anger with their measures aimed at other religions. The destruction of ancient Buddhist statues and demands that non-Muslims must wear yellow identification badges have been condemned all over the world. Diplomats have said that Taliban rulers are out of touch and are foreclosing all options and contacts with the outside world if they continue on this path. Eric de Muel, the UN co-ordinator for Afghanistan, said: "The ball is in their court."
Afghan sources in Kandahar said that as a result of the power struggle in the movement, Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the Taliban, is surrounded by a clique of hardline advisers, including Arab and Pakistani militants determined to oust foreign influences and set up what they say will be the purest Islamic state in the world.
Fighting erupted yesterday in a key north-eastern district as the Taliban tried to smash through opposition lines 18 miles south of Taloqan, the capital city of Takhar province, resistance sources said.