Sievers, Marc Jonathan, 1955-

<p>Marc Sievers, a career member of the Foreign Service, was nominated on July 15, 2015, to be the next ambassador to Oman. If he’s confirmed by the Senate, it will be his first such posting.</p>

<p>Sievers is from Utah, where he moved as a teenager. He attended the University of Utah, earning a BA in history in 1978. He went on to Columbia University in New York to earn a master’s degree in international affairs in 1980. Sievers joined the Foreign Service the following year.</p>

<p>Sievers’ early political counselor assignments included postings in Hong Kong; Cairo, Egypt; Rabat, Morocco; Ankara, Turkey; and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.</p>

<p>Most of Sievers’ career has been focused on the Middle East. In 2001, Sievers was named Deputy Director in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs of the Office of Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. He was sent to Algiers, Algeria, in 2003 to serve as Deputy Chief of Mission. His task there included trying to convince Muslim religious leaders to publicly condemn acts of terrorism. From his post there, he also warned that the U.S. had intercepted a letter from Ayman al-Zawahiri to Abu al-Zarqawi that outlined Al-Qaeda’s plans to turn Iraq into their base for overthrowing moderate regimes in the region and establish a caliphate. In 2006, he was a political counselor in the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv. He did a stint in Baghdad as political minister-counselor in the embassy there from 2010 to 2011.</p>

<p>In 2011, Sievers was sent to Cairo, Egypt, as Deputy Chief of Mission there. He served as Chargé d’Affaires for much of 2014. That was a difficult time, and Sievers found himself having to do such things as deny the existence of a plot by the U.S. against the Egyptian government.</p>

<p>Since 2014, Sievers has been a diplomat in residence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. This is a one-year assignment similar to that of career counselor at universities and other institutions.</p>

<p>Sievers and his wife, Michelle Huda Raphael, have a son, Samuel. Sievers has a daughter, Miriam, and a son, David, by a previous marriage. Sievers speaks Arabic, Hebrew, French and Turkish.</p>

<p>Marc Jonathan Sievers is the U.S. Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman since January 7, 2016. His rank, as a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, is Minister-Counselor.</p>

<p>BA, history, University of Utah, 1978<br>
Master of International Affairs Columbia University 1980</p>

<p>Sievers entered the Foreign Service in 1981. He was the first person to serve as Diplomat-in-Residence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (2014–15). Within the State Department, he's served as U.S. deputy chief of mission and chargé d'affaires in Cairo and various posts all over the Middle East including Baghdad, Tel Aviv and Algiers. He was a senior adviser to Iraq's Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) - a position for which he volunteered.</p>

<p>Washington, DC—January 31, 2020—The Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs today announced the addition of Marc J. Sievers as a nonresident senior fellow. Sievers recently retired as a career member of the senior foreign service with the rank of minister-counselor, after having most recently served as US ambassador to Oman. Sievers brings to the program deep expertise in foreign and domestic policy in the Gulf and the wider Middle East. He recently published an article with the Atlantic Council following the death of Sultan Qaboos of Oman, in which he reflects on the Sultan’s life and legacy.</p>

<p>“The US-Omani relationship is a unique and especially important one in the region,”said Director of Middle East Programs William F. Wechsler. “At this critical point of generational change in Muscat, there is nobody better placed to help us understand the opportunities ahead than Marc Sievers. I am very happy to welcome him to the Atlantic Council team.”</p>

<p>Sievers served as US ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman from January 2016 to November 2019. He was a foreign service officer since 1981 and received numerous awards over his career, including three State Department Superior Honor Awards and four Meritorious Honor Awards. He served as political counselor in Riyadh, deputy political counselor in Ankara, and political officer in Rabat and Cairo. He was also the first appointed diplomatic fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy from September 2014 to July 2015.</p>

<p>Sievers received an MA in international affairs from Columbia University and a BA in history from the University of Utah. He speaks Hebrew and Arabic. His achievements in the study of the Arabic language and culture earned him the American Foreign Service Association’s Sinclaire Language Award.</p>