Ahmad Massoud[a] (born 10 July 1989) is an Afghan politician and military leader who is the founder and leader of the National Resistance Front (NRF) since 2021. He is the eldest son of prominent Afghan Tajik military commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.[1]
On 5 September 2019, he was declared his father's successor at his mausoleum in the Panjshir Valley.[2] After the Taliban seized control of Panjshir Valley on 6 September 2021, Massoud evacuated towards Tajikistan.[3] Massoud has since been leading the NRF operations from inside Tajikistan and participated in the Vienna conferences in working towards a democratic state in Afghanistan. The meetings brought together leading Afghan anti-Taliban figures, women's rights activists, and civil society representatives.
Early life and education
Ahmad Massoud was born into an ethnic Tajik family in 1989.[4] He is the only son and the oldest of Ahmad Shah Massoud's six children.[5]
Massoud later returned to Afghanistan and was appointed CEO of the Massoud Foundation in November 2016.[5][13]
Since March 2019, Massoud entered politics, a widely anticipated move for one referred to in Panjshir as the "predestined."[14][15][16][17][18] He has endorsed his father's idea of a Swiss model for internal power relations in Afghanistan, saying that the decentralization of government and the de-concentration of power from Kabul would give a more efficient allocation of resources and authority to provinces in the country, thereby bringing prosperity and stability to the country as a whole.[19][20][21]
Massoud objected to the direction of the Afghan peace process in 2019, which he believed did not represent the interests of all Afghans. In September of that year, he announced the creation of a new coalition of mujahideen leaders modeled on the Northern Alliance that had resisted the Taliban in the 1990s.[22] The coalition, known as the National Resistance Front (NRF), became one of several independent military forces built up ahead of the United States military withdrawal.[23][24] After most of the country surrendered to the Taliban during its 2021 offensive, Massoud and former Vice President Amrullah Saleh met in Panjshir and declared their rejection of Taliban rule. Massoud appealed in the American press for military and logistical support for his forces. Among other reasons, he listed the need to protect women's rights, prevent public executions, and avoid the return of a safe haven in Afghanistan for international terrorists.[25]
On 22 August 2021, he warned of a potential civil war if a power-sharing agreement was not reached and said that war was "unavoidable" under those circumstances, saying "We defeated the Soviet Union, we can defeat the Taliban".[26] He has founded the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) which has thousands of fighters. Massoud has asked the U.S., France and others in Europe and the Arab world to support the NRF.[27] He has also stated his desire to negotiate with the Taliban, but that if talks fail he is ready for a military confrontation.[28]
On 6 September 2021, with the Taliban taking control of the Panjshir Valley, Massoud moved to an unknown location and said the resistance will continue.[29][30][31] On 9 September, Massoud's spokesman Ali Maisam Nazary stated that both Massoud and former vice president Amrullah Saleh were "safe" and still in Afghanistan.[32] Nazary also disputed reports that the Taliban had full control of the Province, stating that 60% was still under National Resistance Front control, and stated that NRF forces made a "tactical withdrawal" from some areas.[33] On 8 September French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy shared a photo of himself talking to Massoud in Panjshir in 2020 on his Twitter page and also disputed the reports of the Taliban taking full control of the province.[citation needed]
Massoud has since been leading the NRF operations from inside Tajikstan and participated in the Vienna conferences in working towards "a democratic Afghanistan".[12] The meetings brought together leading Afghan anti-Taliban figures, women's rights activists, and civil society representatives.[12]
↑ He was mentioned as 27 years old in "Ahmad Massoud, l'héritier du lion"[Ahmad Massoud, the Heir of the Lion] (in French). 9 September 2016. Archived from the original on 19 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
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