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R. Stephen Beecroft

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Robert Beecroft
United States Ambassador to Egypt
Incumbent
Assumed office
February 14, 2015
PresidentBarack Obama
DeputyThomas Goldberger
Preceded byAnne Patterson
United States Ambassador to Iraq
In office
October 11, 2012 – September 27, 2014
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byJames Jeffrey
Succeeded byStuart Jones
United States Ambassador to Jordan
In office
August 14, 2008 – June 4, 2011
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Barack Obama
Preceded byDavid Hale
Succeeded byStuart Jones
Personal details
Born1957 (age 66–67)
Alma materBrigham Young University
UC Berkeley School of Law

Robert Stephen "Steve" Beecroft (born 1957) is an American diplomat. He has served as United States Ambassador to Egypt since June 2014.[1] Earlier, he previously served as United States Ambassador to Iraq [2] and United States Ambassador to Jordan.[3]

Biography

He holds a B.A. from Brigham Young University and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.[4][5] A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he was a Mormon missionary in Venezuela.[4][5] He practiced law in the San Francisco office of an international law firm.[5]

He joined the United States Foreign Service in 1994.[5] He carried out an assignment in Washington, D.C. as Executive Assistant to two Secretaries of State, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, and Special Assistant to a Deputy Secretary of State.[4][5] He has also held assignments in the Department of State's Executive Secretariat and its Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.[4] Overseas he has served at the U.S. embassies in Amman, Riyadh, and Damascus. He served as Ambassador to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from August 2008 until June 2011.[4][5]

He joined the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, as Deputy Chief of Mission on July 14, 2011.[2] He became Charge d'Affaires upon the departure of Ambassador James Jeffrey on June 1, 2012.[2] On September 11, 2012, the White House Press Office announced that President Barack Obama had nominated Mr. Beecroft to the U.S. Senate to succeed Ambassador Jeffrey as the United States Ambassador to Iraq in the wake of the withdrawal of the nomination of Brett H. McGurk.[4][6] He was confirmed by the Senate on September 22, and sworn in on October 9, 2012.[2]

He is a recipient of the Department of State's Meritorious, Superior, and Distinguished Honor Awards and in April 2011 received the Diplomacy in Human Rights award.[4]

Nomination as US Ambassador to Egypt

The Nomination of Beecroft and his selection came in a moment fraught with tension in relations between the United States and Egypt after the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état. At the time, U.S. officials have repeatedly criticized the army-backed interim Egyptian government in dealing violently with opponents, especially those associated with the Muslim Brotherhood - banned after the military coup - and for allowing the courts to issue death sentences on hundreds of opponents.[7] It was expected that the Obama administration shall nominate Robert Ford, who was a senior U.S. diplomats in the Syrian crisis to the post of ambassador in Cairo, but U.S. officials said that the Egyptian government has indicated that they see Ford close to Islamic parties in the Middle East.[8]

In late April 2014 the United States decided to lift the partial ban imposed on the military aid to Egypt - after the military coup - and the Pentagon delivered ten Apache helicopters to Egypt, and that followed the Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy visit to Washington.[8]

On the same day Beecroft was nominated (May 9, 2014), the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called on the United States to support the presidential candidate Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Egypt, the Field Marshal leader of the coup d'état, during the elections and not to criticize him openly, and to postpone any differences with him until after he took office. Barak said in the 2014 speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy that "The United States must sometimes waive defending the values of freedom and democracy in order to protect its interests." He added that he felt happy after the intervention of the army and the arrest of deposed President Mohamed Morsi and setting the ousted President Hosni Mubarak free from prison.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Beecroft to the post on June 26, 2014.[9]

References

  1. ^ "US appoints Robert Stephen Beecroft as new Ambassador to Egypt". IANS. news.biharprabha.com. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d "New US ambassador to Iraq arrives in Baghdad". The New York Post. October 11, 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
  3. ^ "U.S. Ambassador to Egypt: Who Is Stephen Beecroft?". All Gov. July 27, 2014. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Joseph Walker, Pres. Barack Obama appoints LDS diplomat Robert Stephen Beecroft as ambassador to Iraq, Deseret News, September 15, 2012
  5. ^ a b c d e f Page Johnson, Ambassador Stephen Beecroft receives human rights award, Church News, April 27, 2011.
  6. ^ Presidential Nominations Sent to the Senate, WhiteHouse.gov, September 11, 2012
  7. ^ http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/28/world/africa/egypt-politics/
  8. ^ a b http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UNITED_STATES_EGYPT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
  9. ^ http://www.periodicalpress.senate.gov/
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert S. Beecroft.
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Jordan
2008–2011 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Iraq
2012–2014
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Egypt
2015–present 		Incumbent
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