The new leader of the Taliban Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor just broadcast

The message said: “We should keep our unity, we must be united, our enemy will be happy in our separation”.

Mansoor, the former aviation minister in the Taliban government, was elected as the new leader this week when the Taliban government officially confirmed the death of their supreme leader Mullah Omar due to protracted illness.

In an audio message, a speaker purported to be the Taliban’s new leader denies that the Sunni Islamist group is attempting to work toward a peace process with the Afghan government.

On the surface, the dialogue facilitated by Pakistan and China and endorsed by the US has suffered a reversal, with the Afghan Taliban postponing the second round of talks because of Mullah Omar’s death.

Confirmation of Mullah Omar’s death and the succession has been officially conveyed through the Afghan government by a Taliban faction that is in favour of talks with Kabul.

“This is the enemy propaganda to call it the peace process”.

Following Mansour’s election, the Taliban also chose Sirajuddin Haqqani as its new deputy leader, a report said.

Mansoor had been giving orders and appointing commanders, essentially taking full control of the organization, especially after Omar’s closest aides, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund and Mullah Biradar, were killed and arrested, respectively. He had not been seen in public since fleeing when the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001 after s US-led invasion.

The ISI does have long links with Islamic militants in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, since at least the 1980s, when it funneled weapons and money to insurgents battling Soviet forces.

In either event, the Obama White House said reports of Mullah Omar’s death are credible.

“A large majority in the powerful Quetta Shura are opposed to Mansour’s selection”, said Jawed Kohistani, a Kabul-based military analyst.

Highlighting that Afghanistan remained a “dangerous place” and Afghan people still suffered “from brutal insurgency”, the statement said that Taliban could either choose to continue to destabilize their own country, or choose peace.

Referring to criticism by some of his Taliban opponents, Mansoor said decisions would not be made unilaterally but collectively. “He would say, ‘We can’t win by way of killing.'”.

Afghan officials met Taliban cadres last month in Murree, a holiday town in the hills north of the Pakistani capital Islamabad, for their first face-to-face talks aimed at ending the bloody insurgency.