Reza Afshar OBE was appointed Independent Diplomat’s Executive Director in 2020.
He has extensive international security and diplomacy experience. He was ID’s Policy Director for 7 years, overseeing all diplomatic support to non-state actors, and ran ID’s Syrian oppositon work.
Reza served 13 years in the UK government, specialising in crisis management and negotiation. He was posted to Afghanistan immediately after 9/11 to work closely with the Northern Alliance and in 2006 to manage a counter-narcotics team. Reza managed crisis teams on Iraq (2003), Zimbabwe (2008) and Syria (2013). He spent 3.5 years as lead UK negotiator on Middle East, Asia and Europe at the UN Security Council (2009-12) where he authored and negotiated numerous sanctions regimes, peacekeeping operations, an ICC referral and use of force to protect civilians in Libya. Reza also negotiated a new arms control protocol on explosive remnants of war, and served as MENA adviser to the UK Foreign Secretary (2012).
