Just days after a U.S. drone strike killed the Taliban’s leader in Pakistan, the State Department said it’s hopeful the Taliban’s new leader is open to engaging in peace talks.
Over the weekend, a U.S. drone strike killed Mullah Mohammed Akhtar Mansour, and the group replaced him with Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada.
But State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the strike against Mansour was ordered because of fear of an imminent strike he was planning.
“The strike against Mansour was based on both his previous actions but also his intent to carry out additional strikes, not only against Afghan forces but against U.S. military forces on the ground in Afghanistan,” Toner said.
“That was the clear and pressing, imminent threat that we were addressing by removing him from the battlefield,” he added. “But we also hope that it sent a clear signal to the Taliban that, really, peace and reconciliation is their only option.”
Toner indicated that Akhundzada has a chance to reset the posture his group takes toward the United States.
“All I’m trying to say is … new leadership may have an opportunity here to engage, re-engage, on peace talks and it’s our hope that they make that choice,” Toner said.
Akhundzada, however, has said he wants to “bring back the era of Mullah Mohammad Omar,” the hardline Taliban leader who led the group for nearly two decades and pledged violence against his enemies.
