Haron Amin

Infobox Ambassador
honorific-prefix =
name =Haron Amin
honorific-suffix =


imagesize =
order =
ambassador_from =Afghan
country =Japan
term_start =April 30, 2004
predecessor =
successor =incumbent
president =Hamid Karzai

Haron Amin is the Afghan ambassador to Japan and non-resident ambassador to Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore. He is chiefly known, however, for his role as spokesman for the Northern Alliance during the U.S.-led invasion of his country after the events of September 11, 2001. A constant presence in American media prior to the Taliban's collapse [ [http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/09/22/amin.afghanistan.access.cnna/ CNN.com - Amin: Northern Alliance will support U.S. - September 22, 2001 ] ] [ [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/july-dec01/alliance_11-12.html Online NewsHour: Alliance Advances - November 13, 2001 ] ] , Amin was appointed chargé d'affaires to the United States by the interim Afghan government in 2002. He was the highest-ranking Afghan diplomat in Washington for a year-long period in 2002-2003, before being appointed to the Tokyo embassy in 2004.

Amin was born in Kabul in 1969, but fled Afghanistan with his family during the Soviet invasion of 1979, eventually settling in the United States. He returned to his home country in 1988 to fight with the mujahideen under their commander Ahmed Shah Massoud, who assigned Amin to Afghanistan's embassy in Washington in 1990. Amin worked for the foreign ministry in various capacities until the government's fall to the Taliban in 1996. At the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, Amin was an employee of the Afghan mission to the United Nations, which was still in the hands of the pre-Taliban government.

Amin, who holds a master's degree in political science from New York's St. John's University, was mentioned in 2002 as one of 77 "People for the Future" in Newsweek magazine.

References

External links

* [http://www.afghanembassyjp.com The Embassy of Afghanistan in Tokyo, Japan]
* [http://www.afghanembassyjp.com/en/consulate/?pn=100 Official Biography]