In October 1998, the UN votes to maintain recognition of the Rabbani government despite the Taliban's control of 80% of Afghanistan.

By the end of 1998, the Taliban regime has gained official recognition from only three countries: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi Arabia, nudged from first place by the Taliban as the most oppressive country on earth for women, has also been financially supportive of the Taliban and the religious schools in which they are indoctrinated.

The head of the Taliban governing council states, "We have long regarded the Saudi kingdom as our right hand." The United Arab Emirates has also provided financial support to the Taliban.

Through their relationship with traders in the UAE and in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan and the Northwest Frontier Province, the Taliban are also linked with local and provincial administrators and with officials in the UAE who benefit from the vast smuggling networks that link the three countries.

In the same manner that the UN has denied the Taliban a seat in the General Assembly, so too, the 55-member nation Organization of Islamic Conference has withheld both a seat and recognition from the regime.

(Source: Human Rights Watch World Report 2001: Asia Overview: Fueling Afghanistan's War Press Backgrounder)

The Organization of the Islamic Conference sponsors indirect discussions between Taliban and anti-Taliban representatives in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, in March and May, but only reach agreement on prisoner exchanges.

Iran, which supports the anti-Taliban groups, and Pakistan, a Taliban ally, find several occasions to discuss a settlement.

Perhaps most active are the Muslim republics of Central Asia, particularly Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, whose governments are especially vulnerable to destabilization from a strong fundamentalist regime in Afghanistan.

The Taliban's open sympathy for Chechen separatism keeps Russia wary as well.