The selection of cleric Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada as the new Taliban chief on Wednesday all but dashes Obama’s hopes for opening peace talks before he leaves office, one of his top foreign policy goals, current and former USA defense and intelligence officials said.
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In a statement sent to media Wednesday, the insurgent group said its new leader is Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, one of two Mansour’s deputies.
Mullah Mansour was killed in a USA drone strike in Pakistan’s Balochistan province of Pakistan on Saturday. Gains by the Taliban have led to a more aggressive role for remaining us forces, including regular airstrikes against low-level insurgents.
The hardline Taliban movement banned human images for breaching their strict interpretation of Islam during their five-year rule over Afghanistan, which ended when they were ousted by a US-led military campaign.
“My hope, although not my expectation, is that there comes a point where the Taliban realise what they need to be doing” and start getting into a dialogue with the government, he said.
Aziz said Mullah Mansour was not opposed to peace talks.
Akhundzada is a religious scholar known for issuing public statements justifying the existence of the extremist Taliban, their war against the Afghan government and the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan.
“The new Taliban chief will continue attacks in Afghanistan to prove that the movement has not been weakened despite the killing of their leader”, Ahmad Saidi, a former Afghan diplomat, told DW.
During the press conference Aziz also mentioned this fact and further added that Mansour’s death will be a setback for talks between the Taliban and Afghan government.
On May 18, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the U.S. and China had agreed that politically negotiated settlement was the most viable option rather than Efforts should continue to bring Taliban on the table, Mr Aziz said.
The Taliban infighting is likely to make the initiation of peace talks even more hard. “The use of force for the last 15 years has failed to deliver peace”, said the adviser.
The Taliban statement also said two new deputies to Akhundzada have been appointed – both of whom had earlier been considered to be among the main contenders for the top job.
But the rival Taliban factions have to first decide who is going to negotiate these conditions with the Quadrilateral Coordination Group, made up of representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States.
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Akhundzada, who is around 60, used to be the head of the Taliban courts and later served as deputy under Mansour.
