US President Joe Biden has selected Robert Malley, a veteran Middle East official, as his administration’s special envoy for Iran, according to Thursday reports.
Malley was previously a top national security aide to former US president Barack Obama.
Meanwhile Hady Amr, a former deputy special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in the Obama administration, was appointed Thursday as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israel and Palestinian Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
Amr was involved in ultimately failed efforts to broker a Middle East peace deal in 2013-14.
Biden’s decision to appoint Malley was reported on Thursday night by The New York Times, citing two senior State Department officials, confirming earlier reports. A senior State Department official confirmed it to the Associated Press.
Earlier Thursday, three people, including two congressional aides, also said new Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned to name Malley as the Biden administration’s point person on Iran.
Rumors of Malley’s potential new post roiled the insular but highly polarized community of American Iran experts in recent days.
Malley currently runs the International Crisis Group. Iran hawks are “aghast,” believing Malley to be a key architect of the 2015 nuclear deal that former president Donald Trump withdrew the US from in 2018, AP said without citing named sources. These hawks are said to fear Biden “wants to rejoin the Iran deal at any cost and may be willing to sacrifice the security of Israel and the Gulf Arab states to do so,” AP reported. The hawks, it said, regard Malley as less than fully supportive of Israel.
Iran deal supporters have sprung to Malley’s defense, praising him as a measured, longtime Middle East hand who has served multiple presidents and who has significant expertise in the region. Malley was one of several senior national security council officials involved in both the 2000 Camp David peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians and the 2014-15 Iran deal negotiations.
The State Department official who spoke to AP said Malley would head “a dedicated team” of “clear-eyed experts with a diversity of views.” The official added that Malley has “a track record of success negotiating constraints on Iran’s nuclear program” and that Blinken is confident he “will be able to do that once again.” READ MORE
