Jordan Times
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Prince Zeid named envoy to
Washington
WASHINGTON (Petra) — Prince Zeid Ben Raad, who was appointed Jordan’s ambassador
to the US, presented his credentials to US President George W. Bush on Tuesday.
The Prince, who attended school in Jordan, the UK and the US, earned his
bachelors degree from Johns Hopkins University in the US and a PhD from
Cambridge University in Britain.
Prince Zeid, who started his career as an officer in the Jordan Armed Forces,
served as a political affairs officer in the UN peacekeeping mission in the
former Yugoslavia from 1994-96, which led to a decade of work on UN peacekeeping
issues. In mid-2004, following allegations of widespread abuse by UN
peacekeepers, he was appointed as the UN secretary general’s adviser on sexual
exploitation and abuse.
In early 2005, Prince Zeid produced a report — subsequently endorsed by world
leaders at the September 2005 millennium summit —outlining a strategy to
eliminate sexual exploitation and abuse in UN peacekeeping operations.
In 1996, he was appointed as Jordan’s deputy UN ambassador and became the first
diplomat to publicly demand a UN report on the 1995 massacre of thousands of
Muslims in Srebrenica.
An expert in the field of international justice, he played a central role in the
establishment of the International Criminal Court, the world’s first permanent
war crimes tribunal. In September 2002, he was elected the first president of
its governing body.
The Prince, who has been the country’s permanent representative at the UN since
2000, was one five candidates for the post of UN secretary general last year, to
succeed Kofi Annan.
Prince Zeid is married to HRH Princess Sarah and they have a son and a daughter.