U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to name former U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Barbara Leaf to the White House National Security Council, reported Vox on Monday, citing sources familiar with the situation.
Leaf will join the NSC’s Middle East and North Africa portfolio, which will be led by Brett McGurk, who served under U.S. presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump as the U.S. envoy for the global coalition against the Islamic State.
After leaving government in 2018, Leaf joined the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank in Washington, D.C.