Who is Michael Ratney, Biden's nominee for the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia?

US President Joe Biden has nominated his country's former envoy to Syria, Chargé d'Affairs to Washington, Michael Ratney, for the post of US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Who is he?

According to the US State Department , Michael Ratney is dean of the School of Language Studies at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute.

Ratney, one of the most senior diplomatic staff, recently spoke as a faculty member at the National Defense University.

Prior to that, Ratney served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Eastern, Israeli, and Palestinian Affairs, and from 2015 to 2017, he was the United States' special envoy for Syria.

From 2012 to 2015, Ratney served as the United States Consul General in Jerusalem, where he led a delegation of 600 Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians responsible for American political, economic, and cultural relations with the Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza.

Until 2012, Ratney served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Information in the State Department's Bureau of Public Affairs, where he oversaw a network of global media centers responsible for foreign language media engagement on behalf of the United States government.

Prior to that, he served as the spokesperson for the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.

Since joining the Foreign Service in 1990, Ratney has served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Doha, Qatar, as well as touring Mexico City, Baghdad, Beirut, Casablanca, Bridgetown, and Washington, DC.

Ratney is from Massachusetts, earned a BA from Boston University and an MA from George Washington University, and is bilingual in two foreign languages, Arabic and French.

Source: "US State Department"