Ali Maisam Nazary

Ali Maisam Nazary (Persian: علی میثم نظری, born 1990) is an Afghan politician; since August 2021, he has been Head of Foreign Relations for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF).

Education
Ali Nazary is an alumnus of the University of California, Los Angeles and the London School of Economics. He graduated from UCLA in 2012, with a degree in political science and Middle Eastern studies, and from LSE in 2013 with a master's in international relations.

Career
Ali Nazary began his career in communications at Khorasan TV, hosting a weekly show on politics and current affairs in Afghanistan. He then was Director of Media Affairs for Abdullah Abdullah's 2014 presidential campaign, and following the election, Nazary took a hiatus from politics to work as an Afghan and Central Asian government relations specialist at Bellwether Partners, overseeing international relations consulting and management projects. In 2016, he also became president of the Massoud Foundation USA, the U.S. branch of the Massoud family's Afghan relief organization, a position he continues to hold.

National Resistance Front
As tensions between the Taliban and the government grew amidst the drawdown of NATO forces from Afghanistan, Nazary returned to politics as chief of Ahmad Massoud's diplomatic office. With the fall of Kabul and Ashraf Ghani's flight from the country, Massoud allied with Vice President Amrullah Saleh (who had assumed the role of Acting President) to form the National Resistance Front, based in Panjshir.

Subsequently, Nazary was appointed Head of Foreign Relations for the NRF. His tenure has been characterised by legislative advocacy for international recognition of the Afghan resistance and a push for digital governance in Afghanistan. He has been described as Ahmad Massoud's "point man".