Ambassador to Qatar: Who Is Susan Ziadeh?

Saturday, October 15, 2011
Susan L. Ziadeh was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Qatar on September 12, 2011, for what is her eighth tour of duty in the Middle East.

The daughter of noted Palestinian-American scholar Farhat Ziadeh, Susan Ziadeh was born circa 1954 and grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and Seattle, Washington. She earned a B.A. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Washington, an M.A. from the American University in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1978, and a PhD in Middle Eastern History from the University of Michigan in 1991. She also holds an M.S. in National Security Studies, which she obtained in 2004 from the National War College, National Defense University.

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Ziadeh’s early postings included stints at the embassies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Kuwait City, Kuwait; and Amman, Jordan; and service as cultural officer and then vice-consul at the consulate in Jerusalem, Israel, in the mid-1990s. In Washington from 2001 to 2003, Ziadeh was responsible for the Jordan desk, and was acting Deputy Director of the Office for Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. From 2004 to 2007 she served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain. From 2007 to 2009, she was the public affairs counselor and then Official Spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. Ziadeh returned to Riyadh as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy from September 2009 to May 2011.

Outside of government, Ziadeh has served as national director of the Association of Arab-American University Graduates (AAUG).

Official Biography
Statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (pdf)