Taliban still bent on violence despite new leadership: Obama

Hopes of negotiating peace with the Afghan Taliban's new leader were swiftly fading from all sides Thursday, as US President Barack Obama warned the extremist movement will continue killing in Afghanistan. Obama told reporters in Japan, where he is meeting with other leaders of the Group of Seven nations, that he doubted the insurgents would come to the table "anytime soon".
"We anticipate the Taliban will continue an agenda of violence," he said. Obama was speaking the day after the militants named Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader, elevating a low-profile religious figure in a swift power transition after the death of Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a US drone strike. Analysts have said it is unclear if Akhundzada, who faces the enormous challenge of unifying the increasingly fragmented militant movement, will emulate his former boss in shunning peace talks with the Afghan government. But the US killing of Mansour showed that Washington has at least for now abandoned hopes of reviving the direct peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban, which broke down for the first time last summer.