UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Zahir Tanin, Afghanistan's permanent representative to the United Nations, as new chief of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

Serbian media reported, citing Pristina media outlets that Tanin would take up his new post, replacing Farid Zarif, on August 31.

Besides being a UN General Assembly vice president of three of its sessions, Tanin was also an analyst, producer, and editor at the BBC World Service and a research fellow in International Relations at the London School of Economic and Political Science of the University of London.