Name David Satterfield | Role Diplomat | |
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Education University of Maryland, College Park | ||
Acting Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs Satterfield Briefing
David Michael Satterfield (born December 18, 1954) is an American diplomat and U.S. Ambassador, who has served extensively in the Middle East, including the Persian Gulf area, Lebanon, and Iraq. He later served as a Senior Advisor on Iraq for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and is currently Director General of the Multinational Force and Observers, the peacekeeping force for the Sinai Peninsula. He was chargé d'affaires to Egypt from August 2013 to January 2014.
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Biography
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Satterfield graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, with a Bachelor of Arts in 1976.
He entered the Foreign Service in 1980, and has served overseas in Jeddah, Tunis, Beirut, and Damascus. Director of the Department of State Executive Secretariat Staff from 1990 to 1993, Satterfield served on the National Security Council Staff from 1993 to 1996 as Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs. He held the position of Director of the Department of State’s Office of Israel and Arab-Israeli Affairs from 1996 to 1998, and was the Ambassador to Lebanon from September 1998 to June 2001.
The United States Senate confirmed Satterfield to succeed Edward William Gnehm, Jr. as Ambassador to Jordan, but shortly thereafter (on June 1, 2004) the Secretary of State designated him Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs (NEA) (having served for the previous three years as NEA Deputy Assistant Secretary), and in May 2005 he was sent to Iraq as Deputy Chief of Mission. As a result, he never assumed his post in Jordan. On 19 May 2006, the U.S. Department of State announced Satterfield’s appointment as Coordinator for Iraq and Senior Adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. [1]
In May 2009, Satterfield retired with the rank of career minister from his nearly 30-year career in the Foreign Service. Upon nomination by the U.S. government, he was then appointed director general of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), an independent international organization, by the Arab Republic of Egypt and State of Israel, and assumed office on July 1, 2009. The MFO, whose mission is the implementation of the security provisions of the Egyptian-Israeli Treaty of Peace, is headquartered in Rome, with peacekeeping responsibilities in the Sinai. The director general is responsible for exercising his authority through his staff at the headquarters in Rome, the force staff commander and his staff in the Sinai, and the director general's representatives and their staffs in Cairo and Tel Aviv. Satterfield served as chief of mission in Cairo from August 2013 to January 2014 and was special advisor to the Secretary of State for Libya from May to September 2014.
Ambassador Satterfield is the recipient of the: