From 1996 to 2000,Leaf served as the Department's Middle East "Watcher" at the U.S. Embassy in Paris,reporting on French policies on Iraq,Iran,the Arab-Israeli dispute,Libya,and terrorism issues.[4]
From 2001 to 2003,Leaf served as Advisor to the Department's Medical Director,in a position created in the wake of September 11 to develop medical and security programs to counter and respond to chemical/biological/nuclear threats to U.S. diplomatic installations abroad.[4]
From 2004 to 2006,Leaf served as Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo,Bosnia-Herzegovina,where she helped advance U.S. policy goals on democratization and political reform,counter-terrorism,and regional reintegration among the former combatant states of the former Yugoslavia.
From 2003 to 2004,she directed the Regional Headquarters of the Office of the High Representative (OHR),in Tuzla,Bosnia-Herzegovina,enforcing implementation of civilian aspects of the Dayton peace accords,including the return of refugees to areas from which they had been ethnically cleansed.[4]
Leaf directed the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team in the strategic province of Basrah,Iraq,from 2010 to 2011,leaving an assignment as Political Minister Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Rome,Italy,to oversee the PRT's transition to a U.S. Consulate General.[4]
She was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Arabian Peninsula in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq from 2011 to 2013. She served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates until 2018.[4]
Leaf was the Ruth and Sid Lapidus Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Geduld Program on Arab Politics from 2018 to 2022.[2]
On April 15,2021,President Joe Biden nominated Leaf to be the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.[6] The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings on Leaf's nomination on September 15,2021. The committee favorably reported Leaf's nomination to the Senate floor on November 3,2021. The nomination ultimately stalled,and was returned to President Biden on January 3,2022.[7]
Leaf was renominated the following day on January 4,2022. Her nomination was favorably reported by of committee on March 29,2022. Leaf was confirmed on May 18,2022,by a Senate vote of 54-44.[8]
In December 2024,Leaf participated in the first formal US diplomatic presence in Syria in over 10 years when she met with Syria's new de facto leader,Ahmed al-Sharaa,in Damascus,following the rebel's ouster of the previous regime. Leaf stated that the meeting was "productive",and the US government shortly thereafter cancelled a $10 million bounty that it had offered for his capture.[9]
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