Америка дипломаты Чарльз Дэвид Велч өмірбаяны

American diplomat

Charles David Welch (born 1953) is an American diplomat who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs in the United States Department of State from 2005 through 2008. On August 14, 2008, in Tripoli, Welch signed the U. S. Libya Comprehensive Claims Settlement Agreement paving the way for the restoration of full diplomatic and commercial relations between the two countries after a 25 year break. Welch is currently the president of the Europe, Africa & Middle East division of Bechtel.

Welch was born in Munich in 1953 to U. S. foreign service parents, and lived with them in Germany, Brazil, Morocco, Ecuador and Mexico. He studied at the London School of Economics (1973 4), and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University (1975). Welch holds a graduate degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University. He speaks Spanish and Arabic.

From 1977 to 1979, Welch served in the Office of the Under Secretary for Security Assistance, Science and Technology. He was appointed political officer at the U. S. embassy in Islamabad (1979–81) and returned to the State Department where he was desk officer for Syria (1981) and Lebanon (1982 3). Welch was assigned to the U. S. embassy in Damascus as head of the political section (1984 6), and then to Amman (1986 8). From 1989 to 1991, he was a member of the National Security Council staff at the White House and became executive assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs at the State Department (1991 2). He served as chargé d'affaires at the U. S. embassy in Riyadh (1992 4), continuing there as deputy chief of mission in 1995. Between 1996 and 1998, Welch served in the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, playing an important role in achieving U. S. foreign policy objectives in Iran, Iraq and Libya. In October 1998, he became Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs implementing U. S. policy towards the United Nations and other international organizations. In August 2001, Welch was appointed U. S. Ambassador to Egypt (2001 5). On March 18, 2005, Welch was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. On December 18, 2008, Welch resigned from his position as the top U. S. diplomat in the Middle East to pursue work in the private sector. Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice bid Welch farewell in a speech that reviewed his service to the United States. Welch was the first US Assistant Secretary of State to resign in transition to the Obama administration. Welch is currently the president of the Europe, Africa & Middle East division of Bechtel.

In an article titled "Time to Get the Facts Right," Welch criticized the Egyptian media, accusing it of "recklessness in checking the facts of serious matters." In return, the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmad Maher, said that the Egyptian press is worthy of respect and the attack on the Egyptian press did not correspond with the principles of democracy and freedom of opinion promoted by America. He added that the Egyptian press was expressing opinions independent of the government's policy. Welch later accused Egyptian journalists of lacking precision and professionalism, and of often fabricating and sensationalizing news. He specifically criticized Salama Ahmed Salama for speaking against human rights violations by Donald Rumsfeld. Egyptian intellectuals criticized him, accusing him of acting "the American High Commissioner in Egypt," a reference to the authority that the British High Commissioner had once held during British occupation, as they considered his statements a severe interference in domestic issues.

According to Al Jazeera, papers found in the headquarters of the former intelligence agency of Libya indicate that during the 2011 Libyan civil war Welch met officials of Muammar Gaddafi's regime on August 2, 2011, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Cairo a few blocks from the US embassy. Welch reputedly advised the Gaddafi regime on how to win the "propaganda war" by passing information on potential connections between anti Gaddafi forces and terrorist organisations such as Al Qaeda to the American government via the intelligence agencies of other countries such as Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco. He then affirmed the State Department's role stating, "We have welcomed Mr. Chairman, Morocco's recent initiative to resolve the dispute We consider the Moroccan proposal to provide real autonomy for the Western Sahara to be serious and credible."