means." About the death of Massoud he said: "When you are buried in the hearts of the people, you are always alive." "Whenever you fight for the right cause, if you die, you don't die. But if you fight for the wrong cause, you never live." Two days later the attacks of September 11, 2001, killed nearly 3,000 people on U.S. soil. Recent activities After the fall of the Taliban regime Masood Khalili served as the ambassador of Afghanistan to India from 2001 to 2006. In 2007 he was appointed as ambassador to Turkey. To promote the Afghan Culture, Khalili recently translated a book of poems of his father Ustad Khalilullah Khalili into English. About the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan he said in 2008: "[T]hose boys give their lives for Afghanistan; a boy from America, Holland, France giving his life, we always admire him. [...] I wish he [Massoud] could be alive today, to see the world is now helping Afghanistan." About the struggles faced by his country he stated in 2006: "[W]e should not again be interfered with, covertly or overtly, by any neighbouring country. They have the potential to destabilise us. If that is stopped, leave the country to the Afghans. We will make many mistakes but ultimately we will come through. [...] Give us time. After 25 years of war, at least give us 20 years to stand again. This is not easy. The people want to live in peace. Help us with our economy, just so that we can stand again. [...] For 25 years people have seen war. They have lost 1.5 million people. Imagine it -- the pain of the loss of a brother, the loss of a son. We have a phrase that you will never know the fire as long as you are not in it. May God not put any country in the fire that we were in." Khalili was later appointed the Afghan ambassador to Spain in 2010. In August 2019 he was mugged on the street in Barcelona suffering a leg injury while in the city to attend celebrations marking Afghanistan's Independence Day. His €17,000 watch was stolen as part of a significant increase in aggressive petty thefts in the city. References External links Official website video video video "Massoud Khalili 1988" photo and commentary 1950 births Living people Afghan Muslims Afghan politicians Afghan Tajik people People