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US Urges Taliban to Stay With Afghan Peace Talks

by Ayaz Gul July 31, 2015

The United States is calling on the Taliban's new leaders – named Friday to succeed Mullah Omar – to take part in what the U.S. sees as an extremely promising opportunity for 'a genuine peace' and reconciliation between the Taliban and the Kabul government.

The top American diplomat working on Afghan peace efforts, Daniel Feldman, says the United States hopes all sides will move beyond the cancellation of Friday's scheduled peace talks following confirmation of Mullah Omar's death.

"This is a clear moment of opportunity and we strongly encourage the Taliban to use this time of opportunity to make a genuine peace with the Afghan government and to rebuild their lives in peace in Afghanistan," Feldman told reporters in Kabul on Friday.

Afghan government and Taliban envoys were set to meet in neighboring Pakistan on Friday for a second round of peace talks aimed at ending the conflict in Afghanistan.

But on the eve of the meeting, Afghan officials disclosed to the surprise of many that the insurgent group's fugitive leader died two years ago. The Taliban later confirmed the news and decided to pull out of the talks until settling the leadership crisis.

Mansoor declared new chief

On Friday, the insurgent group formally declared Mullah Akhtar Mansoor as its new chief but the announcement did not mention the fate of peace talks with the Afghan government.

The revelation by the Afghan government that Mullah Omar had actually died in April of 2013 continues to raise questions about its motives.

Feldman said the United States is still assessing and evaluating the developments.

But he refused to be drawn into speculations, though he acknowledged Washington too until recently was unaware of the death of Mullah Omar.

"[The Taliban] obviously is a secretive organization, to begin with, which sought to keep the issue of [Omar's] death secret," Feldman said. "I cannot speculate as to what certain entities or individuals may have known or when.

"We had obviously been seeking information on this for quite a while, but like the Afghan government sources and like others, we started getting very credible reports of it few days ago," he added.

Too early for speculation

Feldman said it is too early to speculate on what possible decisions the Taliban under its new leadership is going to make about the reconciliation process or any other issues. He said Washington hopes the Afghan peace process will continue.

"So we hope that they will take this opportunity to embrace the reconciliation process," he said.

Feldman said there is a need for the Afghan national unity government to ensure unity of views while approaching the reconciliation process that he said was key to a stable and sustainable Afghanistan.

'It is one thing that I think is particularly important in terms of the demonstration to the Taliban and to the rest of the international community that this government is not only speaking but working in unison on this issue and that if this opportunity can be leveraged and utilized that it will be in the best interest of all Afghans," he said.

While question are being raised about the future of Afghan peace process, Afghan and Pakistani officials both see the new Taliban leader Mansoor is a strong supporter of the peace talks and are hopeful the dialogue will resume very soon.