ABDULLAH (AFGHANISTAN)

Dr. 'Abdullah' (born 1961), an Afghanistani politician, was the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan. Like many Afghanistanis, he uses only one name, though he is sometimes referred as "Abdullah Abdullah".^[1]
Abdullah was born in Panjshir, 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 Afghanistani 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. Following the assassination of Masood in 2001, he became one of the three dominant figures in the Northern Alliance and later the Transitional Afghanistani Government along with Mohammed Fahim and Yunus Qanuni. 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. Afghan foreign minister loses job
He is generally considered to be, along with former Ministers Mohammed Fahim and Yunus Qanuni, a 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 immediately after the 2004 Presidential Election.

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1. Suellentrop, Chris. "Abdullah? Or Abdullah Abdullah?", ''Slate'', January 4, 2002. Retrieved February 7, 2007.