James Franklin Jeffrey

Jeffrey joined the US Foreign Service in 1977. After a training assignment in Tunis, Tunisia he was posted to Sofia, Bulgaria, where he served as the on-site U.S. representative during a hijacking of a Turkish Air Flight with five U.S. businessmen taken as hostages, in May 1981. Jeffrey then served on assignments in Adana and Ankara, Turkey as a political-military officer, from 1983 to 1987.

Jeffrey served in Munich, Germany, during the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany, from 1989 to 1991, including as acting principal officer during the first Gulf War, and liaison to Radio Free Europe. He then was selected as the US State Department's coordinator for the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (now OSCE). Jeffrey later served as the Deputy Presidential Special Advisor for Bosnia Implementation, working to put into place the Dayton Accords.

Jeffrey during the MSC 2019

In 1996 Jeffrey was selected as Deputy Chief of Mission to the American Embassy Kuwait, and served during Operation Desert Fox and the evacuation of Embassy Kuwait. In 1999 he returned to Turkey, as Deputy Chief of Mission. After serving as Ambassador to Albania from 2002 to 2004, he was selected by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Ambassador John Negroponte to bridge the transition from the Coalition Provisional Authority to the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and subsequently served as Deputy Chief of Mission from 2004 to 2005. He served as Chargé d'Affaires in Baghdad before returning to Washington to serve as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s Special Advisor for Iraq from 2006 to 2007. Jeffrey then served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, covering broader Middle East policy matters, including co-chairing the Interagency Iran Policy Group.

President George W. Bush nominated Jeffrey as Ambassador to Turkey in 2008, where he served in his fourth and final assignment to Turkey until 2010. President Barack Obama nominated him to serve as Ambassador to Iraq in 2010. Jeffrey oversaw its expansion into the largest Embassy in the world with almost 16,000 employees and an annual budget of over $6 billion, and worked with the U.S. military to ensure a successful transition to a civilian lead. According to Voice of America, after this successful transition, Iraq is now increasingly coming under the control of Iran.[5][6]

In the summer of 2007, Jeffrey was selected to serve on detail to the White House as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser for President George W. Bush, serving as acting National Security Adviser on Bush's 2007 and 2008 trips to the Pacific nations.

Jeffrey was amongst 50 Republican national security officials who in August 2016 signed a letter stating Donald Trump was not "qualified to be President and Commander-in-Chief" and "would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being", so would not be voting for him.[7][8]

Nevertheless, in 2018 the Trump administration appointed Jeffrey United States Special Representative for Syria Engagement and in 2019 also Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.[1][2] Since assuming the posts he often visited Turkey to discuss the events relating to the Syrian Civil War,[9][10][11] and also supported the presence of Turkish forces in Idlib.[12]

In a 2020 interview, Jeffrey acknowledged that he and other officials misled senior Trump administration officials over the number of troops in Syria.[13]