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 military commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.
Born to a TajikSunni Muslim family, Massoud was trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He entered politics in 2019, objecting to the Afghan peace process between President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban. Massoud remained highly critical of President Ghani and was described as politically closer to the National Coalition of Afghanistan (NCA), which included his uncle Ahmad Zia Massoud, who was also a critic of Ghani as well as his predecessor Hamid Karzai. After the fall of Kabul in August 2021, Massoud formed the NRF and was formally declared his father's successor at his mausoleum in the Panjshir Valley in September 2019. After the Taliban seized control of the Panjshir Valley, Massoud evacuated towards Tajikistan and later relocated to France.
Since then, he has been leading the NRF activities from France and participated in several conferences in working towards a democratic state in Afghanistan. He has successfully brought together leading Afghan anti-Taliban figures, women's rights activists, and civil society representatives.
Massoud later returned to Afghanistan and in November 2016, was appointed CEO of the Massoud Foundation.[2][11]
Political career
Since March 2019, Massoud entered politics, a widely anticipated move for one referred to in Panjshir as the "predestined."[12][13][14][15][16] 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.[17][18][19]
Massoud had been critical of President Ashraf Ghani[20] and 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.[21] The coalition, later known as the National Resistance Front (NRF), became one of several independent military forces built up ahead of the United States military withdrawal.[22][23] 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.[24]
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".[25] He has founded the National Resistance Front (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.[26] He has also stated his desire to negotiate with the Taliban, but that if talks fail he is ready for a military confrontation.[27] On 5 September, he was declared his father's successor.[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][32][33] On 9 September, Massoud's spokesman Ali Nazary stated that both Massoud and former vice president Amrullah Saleh were "safe" and still in Afghanistan.[34] 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.[35]
Activities in exile
Massoud has since been leading the NRF operations from France[36] and participated in the Vienna conferences in working towards "a democratic Afghanistan".[10] The meetings brought together leading Afghan anti-Taliban figures, women's rights activists, and civil society representatives.[10]
Massoud has advocated for a strategic partnership with neighbouring Pakistan.[20] He backed Pakistan's claim of the Afghan Taliban providing safe haven to the Pakistani Taliban.[37] During a conference in France in November 2025, following the 2025 Afghanistan–Pakistan conflict, Massoud called on Pakistan to acknowledge its past mistakes of supporting the Afghan Taliban and support the Afghan people by backing a legitimate representative government of Afghanistan.[38][39]
↑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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