Biden picks up Jennifer D. Gavito as future ambassador to Libya

US President Joe Biden has nominated diplomat Jennifer D. Gavito as the country’s future envoy to Libya to replace incumbent Richard Norland under scrutiny in recent weeks over his pressure on Libyan parties to accept UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily’s initiative for a quintet dialogue to agree on holding elections.

Biden announced his intent to nominate Gavito to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the State of Libya, The White House said in a statement.

Gavito is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor. She most recently served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq, Iran, Press and Public Diplomacy.

The veteran diplomat prior to her role, she served as the Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in London and, before that, she was the U.S. Consul General in Munich, Germany.

She is also known as Middle East expert and served previously as Deputy Principal Officer of the U.S. Consulate General in Dubai; Director for Syria and Lebanon on the staff of the National Security Council at the White House; Deputy Director of the Maghreb Affairs Office in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs; Libya Desk Officer; and as head of the Economic/Commercial section at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.

Gavito was Chief of the Political Section at the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem and the Foreign Affairs Policy Advisor to the U.S. Africa Command’s Director for Plans and Policies.

Norland, who has been under fire over the past few weeks for pressuring Libyan parties to accept Bathily’s initiative for a quintet dialogue to agree on holding elections, took over as US envoy from Deborah Jones.