Former US ambassador to the UAE and long-time diplomat Barbara Leaf was nominated on Thursday as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.
Ms Leaf, who joined the administration in January as senior director for the Middle East at the National Security Council, will – if confirmed – be moving from the White House to the State Department.
The National reported on February 3 on the potential nomination.
Ms Leaf 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 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 for the past 25 years. She held posts in Tunis, Basra, Kuwait City, Cairo and Jerusalem. She speaks Arabic, French, Italian and Serbo-Croatian, according to the State Department.
Her policy views point to advocating robust US diplomacy in the region. As a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Ms Leaf co-authored a report that rebuked the Donald Trump administration for threatening to close the US embassy in Baghdad.
“The US administration is undermining the reform-minded Iraqi prime minister’s efforts against Iran-backed militias and risking Baghdad’s relationship with Washington,” the report said.
After the signing of the Abraham Accords in September 2020, Ms Leaf encouraged the Biden administration to follow through by pursuing a broader settlement between the Palestinians and Israelis.
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 told NPR the US should pursue backchannel diplomacy with Tehran through Switzerland or Oman to make sure that the tension did not ripple outwards and put US interests in Iraq and beyond at risk.
Once confirmed, Ms Leaf will replace David Schenker and will be reporting to Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, whose nomination is also awaiting confirmation.
In her new role, Ms Leaf will use her lengthy foreign service experience to supervise the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and a number of deputies who oversee regional portfolios.
Ms Leaf, sources close to her say, is keen on using her resume and knowledge of the Foreign Service to repair some of the damage to the State Department that occurred during the Trump administration.
Besides Ms Leaf, Mr Biden nominated Karen Donfried as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, Mary Phee as assistant secretary of state for African affairs and Michele Sison as assistant secretary of state for international organisation affairs.
He also nominated Gentry O Smith as assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, Anne A Witkowsky as assistant secretary of state for conflict and stabilisation operations and co-ordinator for reconstruction and stabilisation, and Marcia Bernicat as director general of the Foreign Service and the chair of the Board of the Foreign Service.
The specs
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Persuasion
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The Vile
Starring: Bdoor Mohammad, Jasem Alkharraz, Iman Tarik, Sarah Taibah
Director: Majid Al Ansari
Rating: 4/5
Tips to keep your car cool
- Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
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Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
Prop idols
Girls full-contact rugby may be in its infancy in the Middle East, but there are already a number of role models for players to look up to.
Sophie Shams (Dubai Exiles mini, England sevens international)
An Emirati student who is blazing a trail in rugby. She first learnt the game at Dubai Exiles and captained her JESS Primary school team. After going to study geophysics at university in the UK, she scored a sensational try in a cup final at Twickenham. She has played for England sevens, and is now contracted to top Premiership club Saracens.
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Seren Gough-Walters (Sharjah Wanderers mini, Wales rugby league international)
Few players anywhere will have taken a more circuitous route to playing rugby on Sky Sports. Gough-Walters was born in Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, raised in Sharjah, did not take up rugby seriously till she was 15, has a master’s in global governance and ethics, and once worked as an immigration officer at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi. In the summer of 2021 she played for Wales against England in rugby league, in a match that was broadcast live on TV.
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Erin King (Dubai Hurricanes mini, Ireland sevens international)
Aged five, Australia-born King went to Dubai Hurricanes training at The Sevens with her brothers. She immediately struck up a deep affection for rugby. She returned to the city at the end of last year to play at the Dubai Rugby Sevens in the colours of Ireland in the Women’s World Series tournament on Pitch 1.
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
