Washington: “New Taliban leader has a chance to prefer peace and to work towards a discussed solution to join the Afghan-led peace talks”, the US has said.

Mark Toner ,the State Department Deputy Spokesman said, “"We would hope that he would seize the opportunity”.

Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, a religious leader was chosen as the new leader of the Taliban after the death of Mullah Mansour in a US drone hit in Pakistan on Saturday.

The Taliban has discarded peace proposals from the Afghan government.

Toner said , "He (Akhundzada) does have an opportunity in front of him to choose peace and to work towards a negotiated solution. We hope that he makes that choice now,"

He added, "I'm not going to predict who we might target in the national security interest of the US,"