US President Joe Biden on Friday announced the nomination of Michael Ratney to be US ambassador to Saudi Arabia. The nomination, announced by the White House, would see one of the State Department"s most experienced Middle East hands as ambassador to Riyadh. Ratney, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, speaks fluent Arabic and has served across the Middle East, most recently as chargé d’affaires at the US embassy in Jerusalem. Prior to that, he served as the State Department’s acting deputy assistant secretary for the Levant and Israel and Palestinian affairs, and as the US special envoy for Syria. Other assignments he held in the region include deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Doha, and diplomatic capacities in Beirut and Baghdad. Naming an ambassador to Riyadh comes more than a year and a half after Biden took office. Unlike the previous US ambassador to Riyadh, John Abi Zaid, Ratney does not come from a military background. — Agencies