Who is Antony Blinken? Former Deputy Secretary of State for Obama
ANTONY Blinken is expected to be nominated as secretary of state to form part of President-elect Joe Biden’s cabinet.
Blinken is no stranger to the White House as he has worked at the State Department with the Clinton administration and with former president Barack Obama.
Who is Antony Blinken?
Antony Blinken, 58, is a government official who has served in the White House for nearly two decades.
Blinken held the role of US Deputy Secretary of State from 2015 to 2017 and also served as Deputy National Security Advisor for two years under President Barack Obama.
He has had extensive experience in foreign affairs and served as the Democratic Staff Director for the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee for six years.
Blinken is also a global affairs analyst for CNN.
How long has he worked for President-elect Joe Biden?
Blinken and Biden have worked together within the government for 20 years.
He served as his top aide on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and later as his national security adviser when he was vice president.
While forming part of the national security, Blinken helped develop the US response to political instability across the Middle East, including Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Libya.
Blinken also helped craft Biden’s proposal in the Senate to create three autonomous regions in Iraq, partitioned by ethnic or sectarian identity.
However, the proposal was widely rejected, including by the country’s prime minister at the time.
Under the Obama administration, Blinken worked to harness more than 60 countries to counter the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
What will be his job as secretary of state?
Blinken will be given the task to re-establish the US as a trusted ally in the eyes of other nations.
He will be in charge of re-joining global agreements such as the Paris accords, the Iran nuclear deal, and the World Health Organization.
Two weeks after Biden’s inauguration in January, Blinken will also be expected to extend the last major arms control agreement with Russia for five years.
When is he being nominated?
The president-elect’s official transition team has yet to formally confirm Blinken’s nomination until Biden makes the formal announcement.
He is expected to begin announcing his cabinet picks on Tuesday.
A current State Department official told CNN that Biden "couldn't have picked a stronger choice to demonstrate his commitment to diplomacy and the diplomatic corps, much less the partnerships and alliances that make us strong."
Among the pick, Biden is also expected to name a national security adviser and a US ambassador to the United Nations.
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