The Biden administration is naming a longtime U.S. diplomat for the Middle East as its special envoy in Yemen, as it seeks a diplomatic end to a grinding five-year-war that has deepened humanitarian suffering in the Arabian peninsula’s poorest country.
President Joe Biden was expected to announce the choice of Timothy Lenderking as soon as Thursday afternoon, when Biden is due to speak at the State Department.
A person familiar with the matter confirmed the selection, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement. The Gulf-based newspaper The National first reported the pick.
Lenderking has been a deputy assistant secretary of state in the agency’s Middle East section. A career foreign service member, he has served in Saudi