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CNN Live At Daybreak

America's New War: Pakistani Delegates Meet With Taliban

Aired September 28, 2001 - 07:03   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: As we have been telling you, two delegations from Pakistan are in neighboring Afghanistan today trying again to convince the Taliban rulers to hand over terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden. Some are calling this a last ditch effort, but Pakistani leaders are not ruling out another mission if this one fails.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour is in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad this morning -- Christiane, good morning.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

We're actually awaiting the return of this delegation. We assume it'll be today, in a few hours, that they return, but we're not entirely sure. They may spend another night there. We're not sure about that. But the fact is that this is another delegation, the second one being sent from Pakistan. It comprises government officials and Islamic clerics. This would be the first time Pakistan is sending Islamic clerics to sort of appeal to the religious side of the Taliban, I suppose.

They're basically trying to do everything they can to resolve this peacefully and to avert a military showdown over this issue. They insist to us that this is not a negotiating team, simply an effort one more time to try to make the Taliban understand that they're in a very serious situation and they need to do what's expected of them, this in the words of Pakistani government officials.

In the meantime, the Taliban appears to be trying to show the international community that it's doing its best to cooperate. They're now saying that they have passed on this religious edict that was, came to in Afghanistan more than a week ago. They're saying that the Taliban ruler has signed off on this edict and that it has been delivered to Osama bin Laden somehow. We don't know and they're not saying where he is, but they're suggesting that he remains in Afghanistan.

In any event, they've told the ambassador here from Belgium that this has been happening and, as I say, it appears that they're trying to show that they are trying to cooperate -- Paula.

ZAHN: Christiane, we talked about this yesterday, but with evidence that seems to be mounting that there's some sort of weakening of the Taliban's structure, do you get information from the Pakistanis that would suggest that they are more hopeful this time around?

AMANPOUR: I don't think they're terribly hopeful from what we are hearing from them. But they also do confirm, and they say it would be very logical and natural in a situation like this that there might be splits within the leadership because this is obviously a very grave situation that they face and Pakistan assesses that there may be the more moderates who would like to cooperate more and engage more with the West, and there may be the more hard-line elements, in fact there are, who are defiant.

So there's a lot of sort of, a few sort of bits of the puzzle that keeps emerging now from Afghanistan in terms of accounts from fleeing refugees, accounts from one government official there that suggests that things are not as solid as perhaps they were a week or so ago. But I think it's too early for us to conclude any significant change, although this may be the beginning of a trend.

ZAHN: Christiane Amanpour, thanks so much for that report. We'll check in with you throughout the morning, as well.

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