ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A decree issued Thursday by a religious council that encouraged terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden to leave Afghanistan voluntarily is viewed in the region as an important step forward, though it was swiftly dismissed by the Bush administration.
Political analysts and diplomats in Islamabad, the capital of neighboring Pakistan, described the Afghan council's edict as a significant softening of the ruling Taliban's resolve to shelter the Saudi exile. Bin Laden has been labeled by the administration as the prime suspect in last week's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The wording of the edict--which came in the form of a recommendation to Afghanistan's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar--was elliptical but constituted a shift of position for Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement, analysts said.
"This religious council recommends to the political leadership of Afghanistan that it encourage Osama bin Laden to leave Afghanistan voluntarily in good time for another destination," reported a radio broadcast from Kabul, the Afghan capital, monitored here.
In Washington, the administration was quick to reject the council's move as insufficient.
"It's time for action, not words," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "And the president has demanded that key figures of the Al Qaeda terrorist organization, including Osama bin Laden, be turned over to responsible authorities and that the Taliban close terrorist camps in Afghanistan."
In an address before Congress on Thursday night, President Bush stressed the U.S. position, demanding of the Taliban: "Deliver to United States authorities all of the leaders of Al Qaeda who hide in your land."
Bush also said: "The Taliban must act and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate."
Earlier Thursday, a senior Taliban official cast doubt on just how much of an opening the council decision represented.
"We will neither surrender Osama bin Laden nor ask him to leave Afghanistan," Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, said in a telephone interview with the Voice of America. "As hosts, we can only ask him to consider to leave but cannot and will not tell him to leave."
Nevertheless, the edict by the Islamic regime's leading religious figures sparked optimism in South Asia for two reasons:
