An Ambassador Who Puts Afghanistan Before Business

When Ishaq Shahryar was a young man and the Afghanistan of his memory flowed with milk and honey, he clambered with his friends among the towering Buddhas of Bamian and danced in the sunshine on the cliffs where they stood.

The Buddhas are gone, toppled as surely as the life the youngsters knew. And Shahryar, who escaped the calamities that were to befall his country by gaining a scholarship to UC Berkeley at 18 and earning a series of scientific degrees there and at UC Santa Barbara, parlayed his expertise in solar technology into a luxurious life for himself and his family in Pacific Palisades.

On Wednesday, the man known for his pioneering role in the development of the photovoltaic cell presented his credentials to President Bush as the first Afghan ambassador to the United States in 23 years. It is Shahryar’s bid to resurrect, if not the Buddhas of Bamian destroyed by the Taliban last year, at least the promise of the Afghanistan of his youth.

“When I left in 1956 it was a beautiful country moving toward modernity,” Shahryar said over tea at Washington’s Four Seasons hotel, where he is living while the Afghan Embassy and ambassador’s residence are being renovated. “When I went back three months ago, it was totally devastated, destroyed, it was unimaginable. The first two days I cried.”

As the new government of Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s transitional president, struggles to get on its feet, Shahryar is expected to be a critical part of its bid to draw private investment to the plundered country. In the belief that he can help do so, he is giving up his U.S. citizenship, selling his businesses, moving his wife and two children from the Southern California they love to Washington, and jumping with both feet into the steamy world of Afghan politics.

“Two million Afghans gave up their lives while I was here making my life,” Shahryar said. “Certainly I can give up my businesses.”

In California, Shahryar embraced the life he made. He lives in an ocean-side house that he longed to outfit with the solar panels he designed--but said he couldn’t because the neighbors object.

The Ferris wheel at the Santa Monica pier operates on a photovoltaic system designed by Solar Utility Inc., one of the companies Shahryar founded. The same system provides power for the parking structure at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Solar-powered emergency call boxes dotting local freeways were designed by Shahryar. So were solar-powered lighting systems used in some bus shelters and billboards.

Even while building a fortune, Shahryar said, the plight of Afghanistan has never been far from his mind. In 1979, after the Soviet takeover of his homeland, he arranged for 60 relatives to flee the country for new lives in and around Los Angeles. And after the Taliban seized power six years ago and imposed a strict Islamic government, he advised Afghanistan’s exiled monarch, Mohammad Zaher Shah, and worked with Karzai on economic development proposals.

In his new role, Shahryar sees himself using his business acumen to improve the prospects of his native country. He has hired former Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-Kan.) to teach him the ways of Washington.

Convinced that international investment will not flow until Afghanistan is safer, he said he will spearhead efforts to expand the peacekeeping force now operating in Kabul, the capital, into more lawless regions.

He also plans to push countries that have pledged billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan to make good on their promises. He says he wants to promote Afghanistan to U.S. oil, gas and mineral companies, and has been working with the U.S. Geological Survey to map out the country’s natural resources.

“I don’t consider myself a political ambassador. I consider myself a business ambassador,” he said.