18 Facts About Zalmai Rassoul

Zalmai Rassoul is an Afghan politician who served as Foreign Minister of Afghanistan from January 2010 to October 2013.

Zalmai Rassoul previously served as National Security Advisor from June 2002 to January 2010.

Zalmai Rassoul stood as a candidate in the 2014 presidential election.

Later, Zalmai Rassoul was appointed as the Ambassador of Afghanistan to the United Kingdom and Ireland from 2020 to 2024.

Zalmai Rassoul was born on 11 May 1943 in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Zalmai Rassoul attended Lycee Esteqlal where he graduated as the valedictorian.

Zalmai Rassoul is an ethnic Pashtun, belonging to Barakzai tribe.

Zalmai Rassoul is fluent in Pashto, Dari Persian, French, English, and Italian and has a working knowledge of Arabic.

Zalmai Rassoul has over 30 publications in European and American medical journals and is a member of the American Society of Nephrology.

Zalmai Rassoul has a vast experience in diplomacy, international affairs, governance and political activities.

Zalmai Rassoul has been deeply active for several decades in the political struggle for the rights of the Afghan people to live in peace and decide their future in accordance with their free will through democratic processes.

Zalmai Rassoul accompanied President Hamid Karzai, at that time a leading member of the Executive Committee of the Loya Jirga, on these missions.

Zalmai Rassoul was suited for this work because of his long term, close contact with Afghan resistance and his 1980 founding and publishing of the monthly publication Afghan Reality created to increase awareness and be a voice of information from inside Afghanistan to the international community regarding the plight of the Afghan people.

Zalmai Rassoul later served as a delegate to the historic December 2001 Bonn Conference.

Zalmai Rassoul was nominated by President Hamid Karzai as Minister of Civil Aviation and unanimously approved by the Cabinet in March 2002.

Zalmai Rassoul played an important role in Afghanistan's readmission to the International Air Transport Association and the International Civil Aviation Organization.

On 5 October 2013 Zalmai Rassoul resigned from his position as Foreign Minister and on 6 October he officially filed his nomination to stand as a candidate in the 2014 presidential election, which he lost to Hamid Karzai His running mate was Ahmad Zia Massoud.

Zalmai Rassoul was the Afghan ambassador to the United Kingdom when the Taliban returned to power in 2021.