Afghanistan Investment Urged

Corporate America should get more involved in the rebuilding of Afghanistan despite worries of security and political instability, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United States said Monday.

Ishaq Shahryar, who was in Southern California for the holidays, called Afghanistan “a very rich country” with untapped supplies of oil, gas, copper, iron and even gold.

“The message I want to pass on is that the Microsofts and the oil companies should help build an economy there because they will benefit themselves,” he said.

Shahryar, 66, spent most of his adult life in Southern California, first as a student at UC Santa Barbara, then as a business leader pioneering in the uses of solar energy.

He had watched his country suffer for decades, he said. First came the Soviet invasion. Then the takeover by the Taliban. Only in March, after a coalition of American-led troops had driven out Taliban and Al Qaeda forces, was he able to return, he said.

“I was emotionally devastated. Our country was totally destroyed. Everything was in ruins,” he said. “I cried a lot for days. That’s when I became totally committed.”

When Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai offered Shahryar the ambassador post, it meant that Shahryar had to give up his U.S. citizenship.

“That was a very black day for me,” he said. “But the even darker day was when I had seen what the Taliban did to the country of my birth.”

Shahryar was in Goleta and Santa Barbara on Monday to visit an old friend, Dr. Wilton Doane, a surgeon. He also met with community leaders and officials of Direct Relief International, which has funneled $5.4 million in medical supplies to Afghanistan.

“There is incredible human suffering there,” he said. “One in five Afghan children die before the age of 5. Medical supplies are desperately needed.”

So is the continued strong presence of the U.S. military, he said.

“If the U.S. left, the Taliban would retake Kandahar within hours, and the rest of the country would follow,” he said.

Instead, he said, Afghanistan now can become a model for Muslim countries -- with democracy, freedom and independence.

Shahryar presented his credentials as Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United States to President Bush on June 19. That made him the first recognized Afghan official at that level in this country since 1978.

Born in Kabul, Shahryar moved to the United States in 1956 when he was 20. He received a bachelor’s degree in physical chemistry from UC Santa Barbara in 1961 and a master’s degree in international relations from the university in 1967.

From that point on, as he monitored events in his native country, Shahryar gained recognition as a high-tech inventor and businessman.

His biography notes that he was one of three scientists who invented low-cost solar (photovoltaic) cells in 1972 and developed the process for mass producing cells used in solar energy panels.

At one point, he helped develop ultraviolet sensitive solar cells for NASA’s Jupiter Project and founded a company called Solec International, a leading manufacturer of solar electric technology.

He also founded Solar Utility Co., a solar cell engineering, design, marketing and installation company.

An advisor to former Afghan King Zahir Shah for five years, Shahryar was a key participant last year in the Bonn talks that preceded formation of Afghanistan’s interim government.

Previously he served on an energy mission to India in 1994 and as an advisor to numerous trade and environmental groups in the United States and other countries.

Until he was named to his diplomatic post, he lived in Southern California. He and his wife, Hafizah, have two children.