{"id":28994,"date":"2016-05-24T13:39:31","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T17:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geopoliticalmonitor.com\/?p=28994"},"modified":"2018-02-04T10:36:20","modified_gmt":"2018-02-04T15:36:20","slug":"taliban-leader-mansour-killed-in-us-drone-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.geopoliticalmonitor.com\/taliban-leader-mansour-killed-in-us-drone-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"Taliban Leader Mansour Killed in US Drone Strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed by a US drone strike in Pakistan\u2019s Balochistan province on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The removal of Mansour from the AfPak equation will reverberate on several fronts: the Afghan peace process, the Taliban\u2019s effectiveness on the battlefield, Islamic State\u2019s efforts to make inroads in the region, and finally US-Pakistan relations due to the high-profile breach of Pakistani sovereignty that resulted in the Taliban leader\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Impact<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Mansour was firmly opposed to any political reconciliation process with Kabul, and it was likely his refusal to enter into talks that got him blown up on some dusty road in Pakistan\u2019s frontier last weekend. After all, it\u2019s not exactly good policy on the part of US policymakers to assassinate the leaders of an outfit that is simultaneously being encouraged to lay down its arms and enter into the political process.<\/p>\n

Yet Mansour\u2019s removal will do little to encourage the Taliban to negotiate; in fact, the opposite is more likely to be true.<\/p>\n

A decision by the Taliban to enter into negotiations will have to come from a respected figure within the organization, one that holds enough personal sway to convince the rank-and-file that want to keep on fighting. It\u2019s no accident that the original call to talks was made in Mullah Omar\u2019s name, even though the venerable leader had already been dead for nearly two years \u2013 he was the only one who could pull off the about face of cooperating with an administration widely seen as a tool of US imperial power.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The removal of Taliban leader Mullah Mansour will resonate in the AfPak region for years to come. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":474,"featured_media":28996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":""},"categories":[1,29],"tags":[1275,1441,1554,1253],"series":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/www.geopoliticalmonitor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Mansour.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/www.geopoliticalmonitor.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":false,"audio_player":false,"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n