Biden nominates Lisa Johnson to serve as US Ambassador to Lebanon

US President Joe Biden has nominated Lisa Johnson to serve as the states’ ambassador to Lebanon, according to the White House, replacing the outgoing ambassador Dorothy Shea.

Biden nominated Johnson, who currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Asia in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) at the Department of State, the White House said in a statement released on Tuesday.

Shea, the current US ambassador to Lebanon was appointed by the former Trump administration in 2020. She was nominated in January to be the Deputy Representative of the US to the United Nations and the US Deputy Representative in the UN Security Council.

Johnson will have to be confirmed by the senate before officially taking up the position, as her nomination has been received and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, according to the US congress website.

Johnson previously served as Deputy Commandant and International Affairs Advisor at the National War College.  

She also served as US Ambassador to the Republic of Namibia from January 2018 until July 2021 and as Charge d’Affaires in Nassau, The Bahamas from 2014-2017.

This wouldn’t be Johnson’s first role concerning the Middle East, as she also served as INL Office Director for Africa and the Middle East, and National Security Council Director for Middle East Affairs. 

Johnson, who will be chargé d’affaires at the US Embassy in Beirut until the election of a President of the Republic in Lebanon to present her credentials to him, worked in the International Bureau for Drug Control and Law Enforcement (INL) and became Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State on October 11, 2022.

Lebanon is yet to elect a president, as the country has been without a head of state since Michel Aoun’s term ended on 31 October.

The crises-stricken nation has suffered deep political divisions between the country's political factions, alongside a severe economic crisis that plunged millions of Lebanese people into poverty.

Lebanon also suffered one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions, in the Beirut port blast on August 4, 2020, which left over 215 people dead and 6,500 injured.