Barbara A. Leaf is a U.S. diplomat who served as

Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs The assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs is the head of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs within the United States Department of State. The assistant secretary guides the operation of the U.S. diplomatic establishment in vario ...

under President Joe Biden from 2022 to 2025. As former

Senior Foreign Service The Senior Foreign Service (SFS) comprises the top four ranks of the United States Foreign Service. These ranks were created by the Foreign Service Act of 1980 and Executive Order 12293 in order to provide the Foreign Service with senior grades ...

officer, she served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates from 2015 to 2018.

Education

Leaf graduated from the

College of William & Mary The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public university, public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III of England, William III and Queen ...

in 1980 with a B.A. in Government and holds an M.A. in Foreign Affairs with a focus on

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Affairs from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

Career

From 1996 to 2000, Leaf served as the Department's Middle East "Watcher" at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, reporting on French policies on Iraq, Iran, the Arab-Israeli dispute, Libya, and terrorism issues. From 2001 to 2003, Leaf served as Advisor to the Department's Medical Director, in a position created in the wake of September 11 to develop medical and security programs to counter and respond to chemical/biological/nuclear threats to U.S. diplomatic installations abroad. From 2004 to 2006, Leaf served as Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where she helped advance U.S. policy goals on democratization and political reform, counter-terrorism, and regional reintegration among the former combatant states of the former

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. From 2003 to 2004, she directed the Regional Headquarters of the Office of the High Representative (OHR), in

Tuzla Tuzla (, , ) is the List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, third-largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the administrative center of Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it has a population of 110,979 inha ...

, Bosnia-Herzegovina, enforcing implementation of civilian aspects of the Dayton peace accords, including the return of refugees to areas from which they had been ethnically cleansed. Leaf directed the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team in the strategic province of

Basrah Basra () is a port city in southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq border at the north-easternmost exten ...

, Iraq, from 2010 to 2011, leaving an assignment as Political Minister Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, Italy, to oversee the PRT's transition to a U.S. Consulate General. She was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Arabian Peninsula in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq from 2011 to 2013. She served as U.S. Ambassador to the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

until 2018. Leaf was the Ruth and Sid Lapidus Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Geduld Program on Arab Politics from 2018 to 2022.

Biden administration

In January 2021, Leaf was named the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...

Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa for the

Biden administration Joe Biden's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 46th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Joe Biden, his inauguration on January 20, 2021, and ended on January 20, 2025. Biden, a member of the Democr ...

. On April 15, 2021, President

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

nominated Leaf to be the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. The

Senate Foreign Relations Committee The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the U.S. Senate charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. It is generally responsible for authorizing and overseeing foreign a ...

held hearings on Leaf's nomination on September 15, 2021. The committee favorably reported Leaf's nomination to the Senate floor on November 3, 2021. The nomination ultimately stalled, and was returned to President Biden on January 3, 2022. Leaf was renominated the following day on January 4, 2022. Her nomination was favorably reported by of committee on March 29, 2022. Leaf was confirmed on May 18, 2022, by a Senate vote of 54-44. In December 2024, Leaf participated in the first formal US diplomatic presence in Syria in over 10 years when she met with Syria's new ''de facto'' leader,

Ahmed al-Sharaa Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa (born 29 October 1982) also known by his ''nom de guerre'' Abu Mohammad al-Julani, is a Syrian politician and former rebel commander serving as the president of Syria since January 2025. He previously served as the coun ...

, in Damascus, following the rebel's ouster of the previous regime. Leaf stated that the meeting was "productive", and the US government shortly thereafter cancelled a $10 million bounty that it had offered for his capture.

Personal life

Leaf speaks

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

, and

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

.“Barbara A. Leaf.” ''United States Department of State''

Articles

Washington Confuses Tactics with Strategy: The Perils of Shuttering the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
October 9, 2020.
The F-35 Triangle: America, Israel, the United Arab Emirates
September 15, 2020.
The UAE-Israel Breakthrough: Bilateral and Regional Implications and U.S. Policy
September 14, 2020.
The Gulf’s Calculus on UAE-Israel Deal
August 19, 2020.
The New U.S.-Iraq Strategic Dialogue: Expert Views from Both Sides
June 18, 2020.
U.S.-Iran Tensions: Implications for Homeland Security
January 15, 2020.
Don’t Write Off Iraq
September 24, 2019.
Bringing Diplomacy Back to the Pressure Campaign Against Iran
September 23, 2019.
The Ends of Iran: Next Steps for Tehran and Its Neighbors
May 30, 2019.
A U.S.-Iraq Security Partnership: Avoiding the Pitfalls Just Ahead
March 13, 2019.
Reports from Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Capitol Hill: Middle East Policy Forecast for 2019
February 4, 2019.
It’s Time for a Serious Saudi-Houthi Back Channel
January 9, 2019.
Containing Iranian Proxies in Iraq
September 26, 2018.
U.S. and Iran Ramp Up War of Words Ahead of Sanctions
July 30, 2018.
Yemen Is Not a Sideshow
June 12, 2018.

References

External links

*
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq Barbara Leaf Briefs Members of the U.S.-Iraq Business Initiative
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leaf, Barbara Ambassadors of the United States to the United Arab Emirates American women ambassadors Assistant secretaries of state for Near Eastern affairs Biden administration personnel College of William & Mary alumni Living people University of Virginia alumni Year of birth missing (living people)