The United Arab Emirates on Saturday gave Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia just 24 hours to close their embassy and leave the country, the official WAM news agency reported.
"The foreign ministry has asked the charge d'affaires at Afghanistan's embassy to leave the country within 24 hours," WAM said.
The quit order covered all Afghan employees at the embassy.
The Gulf state broke off diplomatic ties with the Taliban earlier in the day for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11 terror attacks in the United States.
"The government of the United Arab Emirates has decided to break relations with the Taliban government in Afghanistan," a foreign ministry spokesman announced in a statement, carried by the agency.
"The UAE had exerted a lot of efforts in recent days to convince the Taliban government to respond positively to the United Nations demand to surrender Osama bin Laden to face international justice on charges leveled against him regarding the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11, in which thousands of innocent lives perished, causing a breakdown of world peace and stability.
"Regrettably, the Taliban refused to respond positively to the efforts by the UAE and other countries," the source said in the statement.
The source stressed that the "UAE cannot, in such a situation, continue to maintain its relations with a government which refuses to respond positively to the wish of the international community."
"As such, the UAE had decided to severe ties with the government of the Taliban from today," the source added.
The UAE federation, one of only three countries to have ties with the Taliban regime, said a week ago that it was reviewing the links following the September 11 jetliner terror attacks on New York and Washington.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are the only other countries to have diplomatic relations with the Taliban who have sheltered prime suspect Osama bin Laden - Albawaba.com
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