Al-Qaeda chief pledges allegiance to new Taliban leader

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani excoriated Pakistan on Monday about a recently occurred insurgent attacks in the capital city of Afghanistan killing at least 56.

Ghani’s deputy spokesman Zafar Hashemi said the delegation includes national intelligence chief Rahmatullah Nabil and Acting Defense Minister Masoom Stanekzai.

Newspapers hang for sale at a stand carrying headlines about the new leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, August 1, 2015.

With credible evidence on hand, the afghan government should approach the United Nations Security Council in order to pressure Pakistan to stop funding and harboring terrorists on its soil.

The movement has been in disarray since last month, when it confirmed that its founder and chief, Mullah Omar, had died in Pakistan a while ago.

Riedel said the Taliban may return to talks with Kabul, but “it is not likely to accept a cease fire or break its decades old ties to al-Qaida”, Riedel said.

Aziz also said Islamabad still feels “that reconciliation is the best option”, referring to the Kabul-Taliban talks, but that it was up to the Afghan government to proceed at the pace it wants.

After almost a year of diplomatic efforts made by President Ghani’s administration to restore trust and build confidence in the relationship between his country and Pakistan, the most recent wave of suicide attacks, causing a high number of civilian causalities, has brought their peace negotiations to a stalemate. “They are neighbours and they have to live with each other”.

The frustration centres on the perception in Kabul that Islamabad is not doing enough to halt the incursions of the Afghan Taleban, whose militants are based inside Pakistan.

Three Taliban-staged attacks on the fateful Friday last week killed more than 50 people including a US serviceman when a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation coalition base was targeted.

The fundamentalist Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 by enforcing a strict interpretation of Islamic law.

“We had hoped for peace, but we are receiving messages of war from Pakistan”, Ghani said.

Fighting established Taliban networks is likely an attempt to gain notoriety and improve recruiting within Afghanistan, he said.

Then why did Pakistan really take the initiative for arranging peace talks?

Mr. Rabbani reaffirmed Afghanistan’s desire to work closely with Pakistan to enhance mutual cooperation in all areas of common interest.

“Locals also witnessed sounds of aircraft and a power blackout prior to the attack which makes it seems as if this attack was preplanned”, the Taliban spokesperson added.

As further indication of souring relations between the two countries, social media campaigns have been created in the wake of the Kabul attacks, which call for a boycott of Pakistani products in Afghanistan, Mukhtar reports. “I think Zawahiri is signaling that he still hopes to get something from the Taliban”.