Rangin Dadfar Spanta

رنگین دادفر سپنتا
Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta

Dr. Spanta as Senior Advisor to the President for International Affairs at the 46th Munich Security Conference in Germany (2010)
Foreign Minister of Afghanistan
In office
April 20, 2006 – January 18, 2010
President Hamid Karzai
Preceded by Abdullah Abdullah
Succeeded by Zalmai Rassoul
Personal details
Born (1953-10-15) October 15, 1953
Herat Province, Afghanistan
Nationality Afghan
German
Alma mater Kabul University
Ankara University
Tehran University
Religion Islam

Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta (born December 15, 1954) is a politician in Afghanistan who last served as National Security Advisor of President Hamid Karzai. Prior to that he served as Foreign Minister from April 2006 to January 2010.

He was appointed to that position by President Karzai during a cabinet reshuffle on March 21, 2006 and approved by the 249-seat lower house on April 20, 2006. He was previously the Senior Advisor on International Affairs to President Hamid Karzai. On January 18, 2010 Zalmai Rassoul became the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan.

Early years

Spanta was born on 15 December 1953 in Herat Province, where he completed his primary and secondary education. It has been reported that he belongs to the Pashtun[1][2] group. Spanta is fluent in Dari, Pashto, Turkish, German and English.[2]

Spanta was an ex-patriate for many years as he fled during the Soviet war in Afghanistan to Turkey where he received his master degree from Faculty of Political Science of Ankara University.[3] Some years later, he moved to Germany claiming to be a refugee in 1982. In Germany he became a scholar and assistant professor of political science at RWTH Aachen University, Germany, at which time he also served as spokesperson for the Alliance for Democracy in Afghanistan, was active in the local section of the German Green Party and being employed by a local NGO "Eine Welt Forum Aachen e.V.". During his visits to Afghanistan, upon the fall of the Taliban, he taught briefly at the Kabul University while still being resident in Germany.[4]

Rangin Dadfar Spanta with United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in June 2006.

On May 10, 2007, the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of the bicameral National Assembly of Afghanistan, attempted a vote of no-confidence against Spanta in connection with the plight of Afghan refugees. The effort failed by one vote, but two days later the Wolesi Jirga did succeed in stripping him of his minister status. On June 3, 2007, the Supreme Court of Afghanistan, acting on a request by President Hamid Karzai, declared the second vote illegal and restored Spanta's status as minister. A significant dispute about this issue remains between the Wolesi Jirga and Karzai.

When Karzai presented his list of minister candidates for the new government after the presidential election in 2009, he announced that he would decide on Spanta's post after the International conference on Afghanistan in London on January 28, 2010. On January 9, 2010, when president Karzai presented his second list of candidates to the Wolesi Jirga, he proposed to replace Spanta by the former security advisor Rassoul.[5][6] Suddenly on January 18, 2010 Mr Rassoul was nominated and accepted by the Kabul parliament as the new foreign minister.

Spanta was one of Karzai's ministers that did not have a reputation for corruption or incompetence, but he could not boast popularity or enjoy tribal followings.[7][8]

In January 2010, president Karzai decided to replace Spanta after the International Conference on Afghanistan in London by Zalmai Rassoul. At the London conference, Spanta still represented Afghanistan. Shortly before, he visited the Afghanistan Congress of the German SPD in Berlin,[9][10][11] where he referred to his background as a peace activist during his time in Germany.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kenneth Katzman (2011-02-10). "Afghanistan: Politics, Elections, and Government Performance" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved 2012-03-12. There is a National Security Council that is located in the presidential palace complex and heavily populated by ethnic Pashtuns. As of February 2010, it has been headed by former Foreign Minister Rangin Spanta, a Pashtun who was in the government during the Soviet occupation era and is said to retain leftwing views. Two other trusted NSC officials (both Pashtuns) are first deputy NSC Adviser Ibrahim Spinzada (a Karzai brother-in-law), and Shaida Mohammad Abdali, the second deputy NSC Adviser.
  2. 1 2 http://www.zmong-afghanistan.com/profiles/spanta.asp
  3. ↑ Cengiz Çandar - “Dünyanın En Tehlikeli” Ülkesinde... - 25 November 2008 (in Turkish)
  4. ↑ Cabinet Members Bio Afghanistan Embassy in Canada
  5. ↑ "Afghanistan's second list of Cabinet nominees"
  6. ↑ "Karzai offers new cabinet list, but several lawmakers continue to have qualms"
  7. ↑ "Karzai set to sacrifice lambs, not wolves"
  8. ↑ "Karzai unveils new cabinet though little changes"
  9. ↑ "Afghanistan-Konferenz im Willy-Brandt-Haus: Die Experten"
  10. ↑ "Rede des ehemaligen afghanischen Außenministers Rangin Dadfar Spanta"
  11. ↑ "Konferenz in Berlin - SPD will raus aus Afghanistan - auf Raten"
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