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Dr. Abdullah Abdullah served as the Deputy Foreign Minister and spokesperson for the Islamic State of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. On December 22, 2001, Dr. Abdullah was selected as the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Interim Administration of Afghanistan under then Chairman Hamid Karzai. In June of 2002, Dr. Abdullah was again confirmed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs by the national Loya Jirga, which was comprised of 1,501 selected officials from across the country. He earned his degree in ophthalmology at Kabul University’s Department of Medicine where he also earned his M.D. in 1983. After receiving his degree, he served as the Resident Ophthalmologist at Noor Eye Institute in Kabul until 1985. Dr. Abdullah is fluent in Dari, Pashto, and English as well as Arabic and French.

Formerly a Deputy Assistant Secretary, Ronald E. Neumann served as Ambassador to Algeria, Bahrain, and to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from July 2005 to April 2007. Before Afghanistan, Ambassador Neumann, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, served in Baghdad from February 2004 with the Coalition Provisional Authority and then as Embassy Baghdad’s principal interlocutor with the Multinational Command, where he was deeply involved in coordinating the political part of military operations in Fallujah and Najaf. Prior to this position, Ambassador Neumann served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Near East Affairs (1997-2000), as well as in other posts in Yemen, The United Arab Emirates, and Abu Dhabi. Ambassador Neumann speaks some Arabic and Dari as well as French, and has earned his B.A. in history and an M.A. in political science from the University of California, Riverside.