Joe Biden, the US president-elect, will pick veteran diplomat Antony Blinken as secretary of state, a person close to Mr Biden's team said on Sunday, adding that an announcement is likely on Tuesday.
Mr Blinken is a longtime confidant of Mr Biden who served as deputy secretary of state and as deputy national security adviser in Barack Obama's administration, in which Mr Biden served as vice president.
Mr Blinken's appointment made Jake Sullivan, another longtime aide of Mr Biden, the lead candidate for his national security adviser. Bloomberg earlier reported the expected nomination.
The president-elect's transition team declined to comment and Mr Blinken did not respond to a request for confirmation.
The Biden administration line up - in pictures
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US President-elect Joe Biden has made appointments for his senior White House staff. AFP -
Secretary of State: Antony J Blinken. AFP -
Director of National Intelligence: Avril Haines. AFP -
Ambassador to the UN: Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Bloomberg -
Secretary of Homeland Security: Alejandro Mayorkas. Reuters -
Former Secretary of State John Kerry will be the special presidential envoy for climate for US President-elect Joe Biden. EPA -
President-elect Joe Biden selected Jake Sullivan as his National Security Advisor, pictured here with Hillary Clinton. EPA -
Senior Advisor: Mike Donilon. Seen here on the right, alongside his brother Tom Donilon. Getty Images -
Deputy Chief of Staff: Jen OMalley Dillon. Getty Images -
Counsellor: Steve Ricchetti. Seen here while serving as Deputy Chief of Staff for then President Bill Clinton. Reuters -
Senior Adviser to the President and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement: Cedric Richmond. AFP -
Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs: Julie Chavez Rodriguez. Seen here while serving as an aide to Kamala Harris. AFP -
Biden has also appointed Annie Tomasini as Director of Oval Office Operations, Dana Remus will be Counsel to the President, Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon as Chief of Staff to Dr. Jill Biden, and Anthony Bernal will be Senior Advisor to Dr.Biden. Bloomberg -
Reema Dodin is a Palestinian-American political veteran and will become deputy director of the White House office of legislative affairs. Image: Twitter
Mr Blinken, 58, has long held the view that the US needs to take an active leadership role in the world or see that role filled by countries like China.
"As much of a burden as it sometimes seems to play ... the alternative in terms of our interests and the lives of Americans are much worse," he told Reuters in October.
People familiar with his management style describe Mr Blinken as a "diplomat's diplomat" – deliberative and relatively soft-spoken, but well-versed in the day to day processes of foreign policy.
After Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election to President Donald Trump, Mr Blinken became one of the founders of WestExec Advisors, a Washington consultancy advising corporations on geopolitical risks.
Having practiced law briefly, he entered politics in the late 1980s, helping Democrat Michael Dukakis's presidential campaign raise money.
Mr Blinken joined Democratic president Bill Clinton's White House as a speechwriter and became one of his national security aides.
Under Mr Obama, Mr Blinken worked to limit most US combat deployments to small numbers of troops. But he told Reuters last year that Mr Trump had "gutted American credibility" with his withdrawal of US troops in Syria in 2019 that left Kurdish US allies relatively isolated in their fight against ISIS.
On the campaign trail, Mr Blinken was one of Mr Biden's closest advisers, even on issues that went beyond foreign policy.
That trust is the product of the years Mr Blinken worked alongside Mr Biden as an adviser to his unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign, as national security adviser early in his vice presidency and as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Mr Biden was its chair.
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Gallery: Joe Biden in the Middle East
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Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, welcomes then US Vice President Joe Biden at Zabeel Palace in March 2016. AP Photo -
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, meets US Vice President Joe Biden in Dubai in 2016. Reuters -
US Vice President Joe Biden meets with Kurdish regional president Massoud Barzani in Arbil on September 17, 2009. Biden held talks in the Kurdish regional capital of Arbil to push Iraqi leaders for progress on stalled legislation ahead of parliamentary elections in January. AFP -
Delaware Senator Joe Biden speaking with an unidentified soldier inside a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle during a visit to Ramadi, Iraq, 06 September, 2007. AFP -
US Vice President Joseph Biden and his wife Dr Jill Biden tour the Nabatean city of Petra in southern Jordan on March 12, 2010. AFP -
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal welcomes US Vice President Joe Biden at the Riyadh airbase on October 27, 2011, upon his arrival in the Saudi capital with a US official delegation to offer condolences to the King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz following the death of his brother, Crown Prince Sultan. AFP -
Israel's President Shimon Peres shakes hands with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden before their meeting at the president's residence in Jerusalem March 9, 2010. Reuters -
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden talks with soldiers at Camp Victory on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq July 4, 2009. Reuters -
U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden talks with soldiers as he travels in a military vehicle to Iraq from Kuwait in this September 6, 2007. Reuters -
U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., Chairman of the U.S Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, waves as he talks to Afghan children during a visit to the Ariana primary school in Kabul, Jan. 12, 2002. AP Photo -
US Vice President Joseph Biden shakes hand with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during a joined press conference following a meeting in Baghdad on July 3, 2009. Vice President Joe Biden threatened today that the United States would politically disengage from Iraq if sectarian or ethnic violence resumes, a senior US official told reporters. AFP -
US Sen. Joe Lieberman speaks to Jill, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden as Sen. Lindsay Graham and U.S. Sen. John McCain looks on, during a surprise visit to Baghdad, on July 3, 2010. AFP -
Turkish President Abdullah Gul meets with US congressmen Joseph Biden, John Kerry, Chuck Hagel, and US Ambassador to Turkey Ross Wilson in Ankara, on February 22, 2008. AFP -
US senator Joseph Biden is greeted by Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi while visiting Baghdad 19 June 2004. Eighteen Iraqis were killed and eight wounded in the Sunni rebel stronghold of Fallujah, hospital officials said, in an attack which local residents blamed on a US air raid. AFP -
US Senator Joseph Biden hosts King Abdullah II of Jordan and Queen Rania at a Senate Foreign Relations luncheon 08 May 2002, during their visit to the US Capitol in Washington, DC. AFP -
US vice president-elect Joe Biden is seen during a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad on January 12, 2009. AFP -
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari smiles at Joe Biden during a press conference after a meeting with and Curt Weldon, the head of a US congressional delegation of about a half-dozen members that also includes Rep. Joe Wilson, Rep. Jeff Miller, Rep. Harold Ford, Rep. Mark Green, David Reichert, and Senator Joe Biden, in Baghdad 30 May 2005. AFP -
US Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska listen on as Joe Biden of Delaware speaks to the press at a hotel in Baghdad 23 June 2003. The congressional delegation is touring the capital and attending official meetings. AFP -
Delaware Senator Joe Biden meeting with Iraqi tribal leaders in the Anbar Province in Iraq, 06 September, 2007. AFP -
The wife of US vice president, Jill Biden meets Syrian refugee children on March 10, 2016 at the Zaatari refugee camp, located close to the northern Jordanian city of Mafraq near the border with Syria. AFP -
US Vice President Joe Biden arrives for a meeting with Morocco's King Mohammed VI at the royal palace in Fez on November 19, 2014. AFP -
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit receives US Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden upon their arrival at Sharm el-Sheikh Airport on June 6, 2010, for a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak on the first leg of an African tour. AFP -
US Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden are welcomed by Reem Al Hashimi, Minister of State and Managing Director for the Dubai World Expo 2020 Bid Committee. EPA -
US vice president Joe Biden speaks during a conference with young Emirati entrepreneurs in Dubai. AP Photo -
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri attends a meeting with Sen. Joe Biden, (D-DE), and other members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee 17 April 2002 at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. AFP -
US Vice President Joe Biden shakes hands with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora during a meeting at the governmental palace in Beirut on May 22, 2009. AFP -
US Vice President Joe Biden and Lebanese Defence Minister Elias Murr walk past a US-made tank during a ceremony at the Rafiq Hariri international airport in Beirut on May 22, 2009. AFP
