Mohammad Haron Amin (

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...

: هارون امین‎; July 19, 1969Some sources cite 1967. – February 14, 2015) was the

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

ambassador to Japan from 2004–2009. He is also known for his role as spokesman for the

Northern Alliance The Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( prs, جبهه متحد اسلامی ملی برای نجات افغانستان ''Jabha-yi Muttahid-i Islāmi-yi Millī barāyi Nijāt ...

during the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

-led invasion of his country after the events of

September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

.Profile
Afghan-bios.info, November 2, 2009. A consistent presence in American media prior to the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...

's collapse, Amin was appointed chargé d'affaires to the United States by the interim Afghan government on January 14, 2002, led by

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...

. He was the highest-ranking Afghan diplomat in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

for a year-long period in 2002–03, before being appointed by President Karzai as his country's first ambassador to Japan on 30 April 2004. Born in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

, his Tajik family fled Afghanistan one year after the Soviet invasion of 1979, eventually settling in the U.S. 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 9/11 attacks, Amin was serving as a diplomat of the Afghan mission to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

. Amin was distinguished in 2002 as one of 77 "People for the Future" in ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

''. He earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in political science from St. John's University in 2005, and later earned a Certificate of International Law in the school's Master's Program. In 2007, drawing from his years in Japan, he wrote ''Afghan–Japan Relations: Lands Under the Rising Sun''. The book centers on historical relations and similarities between Japan and Afghanistan, and is the first to directly compare Afghanistan's and Japan's past and cultural heritage.

Awards

* Freedom, Faith and Hope Medal, Georgetown University, USA (2002) * President's Medal, La Salle University, USA (2002)

Death

Amin died of cancer, which had been first diagnosed in 2011, in a

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

-area hospital, on February 14, 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amin, Haron 1960s births 2015 deaths Age controversies Afghan diplomats Ambassadors of Afghanistan to Japan Ambassadors of Afghanistan to Thailand Ambassadors of Afghanistan to the Philippines Ambassadors of Afghanistan to Singapore Afghan Tajik people St. John's University (New York City) alumni People from Kabul Deaths from cancer in Arizona 21st-century diplomats