US embassy cable - 04AMMAN10034

UNCLAS AMMAN 010034 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PINR, PREL, EG, JO 
SUBJECT: BIO FOR NEWLY APPOINTED JORDANIAN AMBASSADOR TO 
EGYPT 
 
 
1. Omar Abdul-Monem Rifai has been appointed as the new 
Jordanian Ambassador to Egypt. Biographical information on 
Rifai follows. 
 
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BIOGRAPHY: RIFAI, OMAR 
---------------------- 
 
2. Omar Rifai is a Muslim East-banker and the son of late 
Prime Minister Abdul Mun'em Rifai and Nahla Qudsi. The Rifai 
family has ancestral ties to Safad in the West Bank, but the 
family moved to Jordan in the 1830s and is now considered 
staunchly East-bank Jordanian. Omar Rifai is the cousin of 
the current President of the Senate, Zaid Rifai, and Zaid's 
son, Royal Court Minister Samir Rifai. Nahla Qudsi married 
the well-known Egyptian singer, Abdul Wahhab, after divorcing 
Omar Rifai's father. 
 
3. Omar Rifai is a career diplomat and served as the 
Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 
 
SIPDIS 
2003 until his recent appointment as the Jordanian Chief of 
Mission in Cairo. He served as Ambassador to Italy and 
Permanent Representative of Jordan to the U.N. Agencies in 
Rome from 2000 to 2003. He concurrently served as the 
non-resident Ambassador to Bosnia-Hezegovina (2001-2003), San 
Marino (2002-2003), and Croatia (2003). From 1996 to 2000 
Rifai served as Jordan's Ambassador to Israel. Prior to his 
posting in Israel, he held the position of Coordinator for 
the Middle East Peace Process at the MFA and participated in 
the 1994 Jordan-Israel Peace Talks. Rifai served in Jordan's 
missions in Cairo, Bern, New York, London and Washington 
between 1976-1994. He originally joined the Jordanian Foreign 
Service in 1975. 
 
4. Rifai lectured in political science part-time at the 
University of Jordan in 2004. He has a Ph.D. in International 
Relations from the American University in London. He took 
postgraduate courses in oriental studies at Oxford and has a 
masters degree in history from Georgetown University. Rifai 
received a bachelor's degree in government from Harvard 
University. He has attended Arab Summit Conferences, U.N. 
General Assembly sessions, Arab League Foreign Ministers' 
meetings and other regional and international conferences. 
 
5. Rifai was born on October 5, 1952. He is married and has 
five children. He speaks Arabic, English, and French. 
 
Visit Embassy Amman's classified web site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/amman or access the site 
through the State Department's SIPRNET home page. 
 
HALE