Amir Khan Muttaqi

Amir Khan Muttaqi (Pashto: امیر خان متقی [ˈamɪr xɑn mʊtaˈqi]; born 26 February 1971) is a politician serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan since 2021.^[2] He was also a member of the Taliban negotiation team in the Qatar office.^[3]

Khan was born on 26 February 1971 in Zarghoon village of Nad Ali District, Helmand Province, his family's roots being in the Paktia Province, getting his primary education in a local school and mosque but because of the communist Saur Revolution, he had to move with his family to neighboring Pakistan, where he was enrolled in a refugees’ madrasa and studied subjects such as Arabic grammar, logic, rhetoric, jurisprudence, hadith and Qur’anic exegesis.^[4]

He continued his higher Islamic studies at the Darul Uloom Haqqania, a seminary in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province from which many other influential Talibans graduated.^[5]

He reportedly lived in Banaras Colony in Karachi, Pakistan during his stay and still has properties, real estate and many other business interests in Pakistan.^[6]

He was initially part of Maulvi Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi's group during the Afghan jihad but later joined the Taliban movement when it emerged.^[7]

He has held a series of senior positions within the Taliban movement. In 1999, he served as a member of the Taliban High Council and was also placed in charge of Kandahar Radio.^[6] That same year he became Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Khan served as Minister of Information and Culture and as a representative of the 1996–2001 Taliban government in United Nations-led talks.^[8][9] During that time, a pro-Taliban source says that his "innovative activities" led to "a systematic jihadist publication apparatus against the enemy’s widespread media aggression."^[10]

On 17 August 2021, just after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, he was reported to be in Kabul talking to non-Taliban politicians such as Abdullah Abdullah and Hamid Karzai about forming a government.^[11] Taliban forces took control of Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul on 15 August 2021 during a military offensive against the Afghan government that had begun in May 2021.

On 7 September 2021, the Taliban announced the first members of a new "acting" government, three weeks after coming to full power with the takeover of Kabul on 15 August. Amir Khan Muttaqi was appointed as Afghanistan's acting foreign minister.^[2] Muttaqi was reappointed on a permanent basis with the rest of the cabinet on 15 August 2025.^[12][13]

In December 2021, Amir Khan Muttaqi attended a session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Council of foreign ministers as Afghanistan delegate.^[14] The session were attended by delegations from 57 nations with China, Russia, and United States of America as guest delegations.^[15] Amir Khan discussed with Pakistan prime minister, Imran Khan, regarding the threat of ISIS in the Afghanistan–Pakistan border region.^[16]

On 11 October 2025, Muttaqi visited the Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband, located in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, India. The visit was part of his first diplomatic trip to India.^[17]

Muttaqi held discussions with senior scholars and students of the Deobandi seminary, and expressed hopes for strengthening ties between India and Afghanistan.^[17] Muttaqi was conferred the honorary title of Qasmi and was presented with a certificate granting him the Sanad-e-Hadith (authorization to teach Hadith). A public event was initially planned, but it was cancelled due to security and crowd management concerns.^[18]

In 2004 he wrote a book which was banned by the Taliban leadership, which thought some of its information could not be aired publicly.^[19][20]