Abdullah (Afghanistan)

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Dr. Abdullah (born 1961), an Afghan politician, was the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan. Like many Afghans, he uses only one name, though he is sometimes incorrectly referred as "Abdullah Abdullah".

Abdullah was born in Kandahar, studied ophthalmology at Kabul University’s Department of Medicine and obtained his M.D in 1983. He worked as an Ophthalmologist in Kabul until 1985, after which he worked with Afghan refugees in Pakistan, where he came into contact with the anti-Soviet resistance. Abdullah then joined the Panjshir Resistance Front, and in 1986 became an advisor to Ahmad Shah Masood, who was also engaged in anti-Soviet activities.

Abdullah was the foreign minister of the Afghan United Front government from 1998 onwards. In 2001 he was selected as Foreign Minister for the Interim Administration of Afghanistan; a post which he lost in a cabinet reshuffle on March 22, 2006. [1]

He is generally considered to be, along with former Ministers Mohammed Fahim and Yunus Qanuni, leader of the Tajik faction, although his mother is actually an ethnic Pashtun. Unlike many other former Northern Alliance officials, he was not removed from his ministerial post after the 2004 Presidential Election.