Abdullah Abdullah

Abdullah Abdullah (Dari/عبدالله عبدالله, ; born as Abdullah on 5 September 1960) is an Afghan politician who led the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) from May 2020 until August 2021, when the Afghan government was overthrown by the Taliban.

The council had been established to facilitate peace talks between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban insurgents.

Abdullah graduated from Naderia High School in 1976.

He worked as an ophthalmologist and medical doctor in the 1980s.

He studied ophthalmology at Kabul University's Department of Medicine, where he received an MBBS in 1983.

After graduating, he worked for several months as a resident ophthalmologist at the National Organisation for Ophthalmic Rehabilitation (NOOR) hospital in Kabul.

Then he moved to Pakistan, where he worked in the Syed Jamaluddin Afghan Eye Hospital for Afghan Refugees in Peshawar for more than a year.

In 1985, Abdullah returned to Afghanistan to join the resistance against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and made his way to Panjshir.

In September, he became the head of the Health Department for the Panjshir Resistance Front, coordinating treatments and health care for the resistance fighters and the civilian population.

He became a close associate and adviser to mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

After the fall of the communist government in 1992, the Peshawar Accord established the Islamic State of Afghanistan with a provisional government led by Burhanuddin Rabbani.

Abdullah was appointed chief of staff and spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense.

On 27 September 1996, the Taliban seized power in Kabul and 90% of the country, with military training support by Pakistan, and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Following the Taliban takeover of Kabul, the Northern Alliance, also called the United Islamic Front, was created under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Massoud.

The Northern Alliance was supported by Russia, Iran and India.

Abdullah became the United Front's Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Islamic State of Afghanistan elements of the United Front, including the Defense Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud and the Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, remained Afghanistan's internationally recognized government.

The Taliban government was recognized by only three countries – Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates.

In early 2001, Abdullah traveled with Ahmad Shah Massoud to Brussels, where Massoud addressed the European Parliament asking the international community to provide humanitarian help to the people of Afghanistan.

Abdullah ran against President Hamid Karzai in the 2009 Afghan presidential election, coming second with 30.5% of the total votes.

In 2010, he created the Coalition for Change and Hope, which became the National Coalition of Afghanistan in 2011 and is one of the leading democratic opposition movements in Afghanistan.

Abdullah served as the Chief Executive of Afghanistan from September 2014 to March 2020, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from December 2001 to April 2005.

Prior to that, he was a senior member of the Northern Alliance, working as an adviser to Ahmad Shah Massoud.

He ran again in the 2014 presidential election and went to the second round with 45% the total vote.

His closest rival, Ashraf Ghani, had secured 35% of the total vote.

Due to signs of fraud, the results of the second round were heavily contested and led to a deadlock.

Despite the controversy regarding the results of the second round of elections, the final certified result by the Independent election commission of Afghanistan shows that Ashraf Ghani received 55.3% of the votes while Abdullah Abdullah secured 44.7% of the vote.

After months of talks and US mediation, the two candidates established a national unity government in which Abdullah served as the Chief Executive of Afghanistan.

Following the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on 17 August 2021, leader of the Taliban-affiliated Hezb-e-Islami party Gulbuddin Hekmatyar met with Abdullah and Karzai in Doha, seeking to form a government.

Reports emerged on 25 August that a 12-member council will be formed to govern the de facto newly reinstated Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Reportedly 7 members were already agreed upon: Abdullah himself, Karzai, Hekmatyar, Abdul Ghani Baradar, Mohammad Yaqoob, Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani, and Hanif Atmar.

However, it was later announced that Abdullah Abdullah and Karzai had failed to secure roles in the new government.

Abdullah was born in the second district of Kārte Parwān in Kabul, Afghanistan.

He is the son of a Pashtun father, Ghulam Mahyyoddin Zmaryalay, from the Kandahar area, and a Tajik mother from Panjshir.

His early years were split between living in Panjshir Province, Kandahar and Kabul, where his father was serving as an administrator in the land survey, and subsequently the audit section of the Prime Minister's office.

His father was a senator during the final years of King Zahir Shah's rule.

Abdullah has seven sisters and two brothers.

His nephew was Mohammad Fahim Dashty, the spokesman for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan during the Panjshir conflict.

Until he became a government minister, Abdullah had only a first name; demands from Western newspaper editors for a family name led him to adopt the full name "Abdullah Abdullah".

Abdullah is married, and has three daughters and a son.