Amrullah Saleh (Pashto/Dari: امرالله صالح, Dari pronunciation: [amrʊlˈlɒːh sɒːˈleː(h)]; born 15 October 1972) is an Afghan politician who served as the first vice president of Afghanistan from February 2020 to August 2021, and acting interior minister from 2018 to 2019.

A member of the mujahideen during the civil war against Afghanistan's communist government, Saleh later joined Ahmad Shah Massoud's Northern Alliance, an anti-Taliban coalition in the northeast of the country.

[2] In 1997, Saleh became the head of the Northern Alliance's liaison office inside the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, handling contacts with international non-governmental organizations and intelligence agencies.

Saleh resigned from the NDS in 2010 amidst worsening relations with President Hamid Karzai, founding Basej-e Milli ("National Movement"), a pro-democracy and anti-Taliban political party, shortly afterward.

[5] Saleh became the acting Minister of Interior Affairs in December 2018, but resigned less than a month later to become Ghani's running mate for first vice president in the 2019 presidential election.

[28] After the formation of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in December 2004, Saleh was appointed as head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) by President Hamid Karzai.

[30] In 2005, Saleh engaged several NDS agents infiltrating the Pakistani tribal areas to search for bin Laden and other al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.

[31] After Saleh sent Pashto-speaking agents to infiltrate the Taliban's operations in Pakistan, the NDS gathered information on militants' homes, mosques, businesses, and families.

[32] In the spring of 2006, Saleh conducted numerous interviews with Taliban commanders, and determined ISI began increasing aid for the militants the year before.

"[35] Saleh explained to Obama that the "Pakistanis believe the West has lost" in Afghanistan, and that ISI seeks to exploit the "division between Europe and the United States.

[35] In early 2010, an Afghan man approached the NDS claiming to represent senior Taliban commander Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour.

"[38]President Karzai's national security adviser, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, was quoted as saying: "With Amrullah Saleh, the Afghan people have lost a huge treasure of commitment, awareness and experience in this struggle against terrorism, Al Qaeda and the ISI.

"[39]According to Ambassador Hank Crumpton from the CIA, who led the Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2001, Saleh possessed "good technical skills and emerging leadership traits".

"[39] Saleh said he considered Karzai a patriot, but that the president was making a mistake if he planned to rely on Pakistani support as Pakistan was trying to reimpose the Taliban.

[4] A December 2011 analysis report by the Jamestown Foundation, however, came to the conclusion that "in spite of denials by the Pakistani military, evidence is emerging that elements within the Pakistani military harbored Osama bin Laden with the knowledge of former army chief General Pervez Musharraf and possibly current Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.

... [T]he Taliban have no message, no vision except intimidation, spreading fear, bringing exclusion in the Afghan society, stopping development and destroying pluralism.

[55] In an article that he wrote for the Wall Street Journal in February 2012, he mentioned, "Talks and a potential ceasefire may provide the US and its NATO allies their justification for a speedy withdrawal, but it won't change the fundamentals of the problem in Afghanistan.

"[56] In his commentaries, Amrullah Saleh also discusses the negative influence of parochial politics and lack of incentives on the development of the Afghan National Security Forces.

"[58] With the imminent draw-down of the international assistance to Afghanistan and its implications on the programs and projects supporting Afghan economy and public institutions, Amrullah Saleh warns that, "The task of absorbing tens of thousands of low-quality degree holders, hundreds of thousands of unskilled, unemployed youth, and an ever-increasing ethnic quota in civil service and development projects will be monumentally difficult.

"[60] Speaking during the inauguration of an Islamic foundation in Kabul, Saleh said the Karzai government and the United States of America cannot represent the anti-Taliban Afghan civilians and initiate peace talks while simultaneously excluding them.

[62] The recent objections by nearly all major opposition parties come amid growing efforts by the US and Hamid Karzai to make headway in secret talks with the Taliban and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami.

Amrullah Saleh highlights the importance of both training and equipment to ensure that cleared areas of Afghanistan are held, communication lines are kept open, and major population centers are defended.

The United States, however, should understand one thing very clearly: It would be making a huge error – and confirming the Afghan people's worst fears – if it picked up and left Afghanistan to the Taliban's brutal ways.

They ended their run at the steps of the historical Darulaman palace and read a declaration: "Our aim is to announce our political and moral support for those who are in the trenches defending the country's sovereignty."

"[65] On 9 June 2013, in the 10th annual US-Islamic forum organized in Doha by the Brookings institution in partnership with the state of Qatar, Amrullah Saleh spoke in a plenary session titled "Transitions in Afghanistan and Pakistan".

"[67] President Ashraf Ghani appointed Saleh to become the new interior minister on 23 December 2018, in a major shake up in the government's security positions.

Media have claimed that Saleh and Khalid's vocal anti-Taliban critics could help curb the Taliban both military and in their ongoing peace talks.

In addition, a nationwide order came into law that bans visible armed guards on pickup trucks trailing someone unless they are military, interior or intelligence officials.

[83] Saleh's son Ebadullah told Reuters on 10 September that his father's brother Rohullah Azizi had been executed a day earlier in Panjshir by the Taliban.

[23] According to U.S. intelligence, two senior former Afghan government officials, and a Pentagon consultant, Saleh escaped into Tajikistan shortly after the Taliban seized control of the Panjshir Valley on September 6, along with Ahmad Massoud.