Mansoor was killed in a drone strike carried out by teh United States forces in Balochistan province of Pakistan on Saturday.
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In the audio message released in Pushto, Haibatullah is saying, “Taliban will never bow their heads and will not agree to peace talks”.
“We believe that peace talks are the only solution to the growing conflict in Afghanistan”.
Akhundzada is not in any terrorist designated list, he said, but did not respond to questions if he is on the target of USA forces in Afghanistan.
An army statement said Gen Sharif denounced “such acts of sovereignty violations” as “detrimental to relations and counter-productive for the ongoing peace process”. Reuters said the tape was given to them by two Taliban commanders, but they could confirm its authenticity.
The selection of a hard-line cleric as the new Taliban chief on Wednesday all but dashes U.S. President Barack Obama’s hopes for opening peace talks before he leaves office, one of his top foreign policy goals, current and former U.S. defense and intelligence officials said. He sought the Afghan Government’s cooperation on it.
“We believe that this (military) approach will further destabilize Afghanistan, which will have negative implications for the region, especially due to the presence of large numbers of terrorist groups in Afghanistan”, he said.
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter hoped that better sense would prevail on the new Taliban leadership headed by Akhundzada. The Afghan government essentially ended this process by announcing that the Taliban was negotiating without their founder, Mullah Omar, who had secretly died.
The Taliban, which has its roots in northern Pakistan, controlled Afghanistan from 1996 until the US invasion in 2001.
“Haibatullah Akhundzada has been appointed as the new leader of the Islamic Emirate (Taleban) after a unanimous agreement in the shura (supreme council), and all the members of shura pledged allegiance to him”, the insurgents said in a statement.
However, there was no indication of whether the appointment would lead to a shift in the stance of the Taliban, which, under Mansour, had ruled out participating in peace talks with the Kabul government.
The Taliban has appointed Moulavi Haibatullah Akhunzada as its new leader to replace Mansoor, the militant group said in the statement.
The Taliban said Wednesday’s suicide attack in Paghman district near Kabul, which the United Nations condemned as “cowardly”, was in revenge for the execution of six Taliban-linked inmates.
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Russia’s special representative on Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, also told Russian state-run media that Haqqani was “the most radical figure” in the Taliban leadership, who could escalate military tensions in Afghanistan and complicate ongoing political negotiations.
