EU Won’t Overthrow Taliban

GHENT, Belgium, Friday – EU leaders on Friday backed away from a proposal calling for the overthrow of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, altering an earlier draft of their summit declaration to call instead for “elimination of the terrorist al Qaeda” network as responsible for the terror attacks on the US. A copy of the draft, obtained by AFP, said the EU “confirms its firmest support for the military operations,” adding that they were being conducted “legitimately” under the terms of UN Security Council resolutions and the conclusions of an EU summit in Brussels on September 21. “In Afghanistan, the objective remains the elimination of the terrorist al-Qaeda organisation, which is at the origin of the September 11 attacks and whose leaders have not been turned over by the Taliban regime,” said the draft. The al-Qaeda network is led by Osama bin Laden. The draft said it was “necessary to work to encourage the emergence of a stable, legitimate government that is representative of the whole of the Afghan population. AFP Ends