Former US envoy to the UAE tipped for senior regional role
Former US ambassador to the UAE and long-time diplomat Barbara Leaf has been nominated as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.
Ms Leaf, who joined President Joe Biden’s team in January as senior director for the Middle East on the National Security Council, will – if confirmed – move from the White House to the State Department.
The National reported Ms Leaf’s potential nomination on February 3.
She has extensive experience in the Middle East, having served as ambassador to the UAE from 2014 to 2018.
Before that, she served in several positions at the State Department, including as deputy assistant secretary of state for the Arabian Peninsula, deputy assistant secretary for Iraq and the first director of the Office of Iranian Affairs.
A career diplomat, Ms Leaf served throughout the region during the past 25 years. She held posts in Tunis, Basra, Kuwait City, Cairo and Jerusalem. She speaks Arabic, French, Italian and Serbo-Croatian.
As a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Ms Leaf co-wrote a report that criticised Donald Trump’s administration for threatening to close the US embassy in Baghdad.
Ms Leaf encouraged the Biden administration to pursue a broader settlement between the Palestinians and Israelis, following the signing of the Abraham Accords in September last year.
On Iran, Ms Leaf is a proponent of diplomatic engagement and issued a warning about regional military escalation that could spiral out of control.
At the height of Iran’s destabilising activity in June 2019, Ms Leaf said the US should pursue backchannel diplomacy with Tehran through Switzerland or Oman to make sure that the tension did not spill over and put US interests in Iraq and beyond at risk.