Al-Qaeda is "bankrupt" and part of the past regardless of who has succeeded the late Osama bin Laden as the terrorist network's leader, the White House said Thursday.
"Al-Qaeda is the past," White House spokesman Jay Carney said after the group announced that longtime bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri was its new leader, dpa reported.
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland echoed that sentiment, saying the pro-democracy uprisings throughout the Middle East have demonstrated al-Qaeda no longer has a future in the region.
"It barely matters who runs al-Qaeda, because al-Qaeda is a bankrupt ideology," Nuland said. "If you look around the world, the peaceful movements for change around the world have done far more for Muslim people than al-Qaeda has ever produced."
The United States has also sought to kill al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian who has expressed hatred for the US and Israel, and is believed to be hiding along the Afghan-Pakistani border.
Al-Zawahiri has said al-Qaeda will avenge the killing of bin Laden by US special forces in his Pakistan hideout on May 2.