The Obama administration is planning to name Stephen Mull, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Poland, as lead coordinator for implementing the Iran nuclear deal — a massive task that could be highly scrutinized in light of partisan wrangling over the agreement, POLITICO reported on Thursday.
An administration official said Mull, who joined the U.S. foreign service in 1982, is the State Department pick, though the choice is not yet official.
Mull’s appointment could both please and disappoint close observers of the process, POLITICO wrote: The fact that there will be a lead coordinator — administration officials refuse to call it a “czar” — is something many advocates of the deal support, but Mull may not be as well-known a figure as some had hoped.
Mull has held a wide range of diplomatic positions, including some that involve navigating the U.S. bureaucracy, according to his biography on the State Department website.
Mull’s roles include serving as “a senior adviser to then-Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, in which capacity he coordinated U.S. diplomatic efforts on Iran, managed the State Department’s crisis response during the Russian-Georgian war of August 2008, and led negotiations on a range of U.S. national security issues, including the agreement permitting the flight of U.S. military resupply flights to Afghanistan through Russian airspace.”
He’s served as the U.S. ambassador to Lithuania and was the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia. Prior to his swearing-in as ambassador to Poland in October 2012, he served as executive secretary of the State Department, a position akin to a chief operating officer. Mull also worked in the office of the undersecretary of state for international security affairs and arms control.
It was not immediately clear whether the coordinator role would require congressional confirmation, though that is unlikely. The position will be based at the State Department, but Mull is expected to have representatives from other departments involved in implementing the deal reporting to him, including officials from Treasury and Energy.