H.E. Zahir Tanin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the 19the of December 2006.

Prior to his appointment, Dr. Zahir Tanin was Editor of BBC World Service (Persian and Pashto Section) for Afghanistan from 2001-2006. Before that, he worked as Producer and Senior Producer in the BBC.

Having started his career in 1980 as a journalist in Kabul, Mr. Tanin came to BBC from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he was a Research Fellow at the International Relations Department from 1994 to 1995. Prior to that, he was Editor-in-Chief of Afkbar-e-Haftah and Sabawoon Magazine in Kabul and a freelance writer in France. Mr. Tanin was co-author of The Communist Regime in Afghanistan, a comprehensive study of the political and social changes in Afghanistan from 1978 to 1992, and authored Afghanistan in the Twentieth Century, published in Tehran. He also produced a 29-part programmed entitled The Oral History of Afghanistan in the 20th Century, broadcast by the BBC.

A graduate of the Kabul Medical University, Mr. Tanin has also completed several BBC broadcasting and media management, and other courses, as well as an extensive one-year BBC leadership programme.

Born on May 1 1956, Mr. Tanin is married with two children.