Ilan Goldenberg is the director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. Previously, he served as chief of staff to the special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, supporting Secretary of State John Kerry’s initiative to conduct peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. From 2012 to 2013, he served as a senior professional staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From 2009 to 2012, he was first a special advisor on the Middle East and then Iran team chief in the office of the undersecretary of defense for policy.
US President Donald Trump speaks the ceremonial swearing-in of James Mattis (R) as secretary of defense on January 27, 2017, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
The oath was administered by US Vice President Mike Pence (L) / AFP / MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz (R) meets with Kuwait's Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah during the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Riyadh on May 5, 2015. The GCC summit came amid mounting international concern over the Saudi-led air war on Shiite rebels in Yemen, the threat from jihadists and Gulf worries over their Shiite rival Iran. AFP PHOTO / FAYEZ NURELDINE (Photo credit should read FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/Getty Images)
