May 26, 1987

The President today announced his intention to nominate W. Nathaniel Howell, of Virginia, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Counselor, to be Ambassador of the United States to the State of Kuwait. He would succeed Anthony Cecil Eden Quainton.

Before joining the Foreign Service in 1965, Mr. Howell was an instructor in government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia for a year. His first assignment as a junior officer was executive assistant to the Ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt. In 1967 - 1968 he served as political officer to the United States Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Paris, France, and Brussels, Belgium. He returned to Washington in 1968 - 1970 as a political analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He then took Arabic language training at the Foreign Service Institute in Beirut, Lebanon, 1970 - 1972, following which he was assigned as deputy principal officer/commercial officer at the U.S Embassy in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. From 1974 to 1976, Mr. Howell was political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and returned to the Department in 1976 - 1977 as Lebanon country officer in the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. He was Deputy Office Director in the Office of Lebanon, Jordan, Syrian Arab Republic, and Iraq Affairs (NEA/ARN), 1977 - 1979; Special Assistant for Arab-Israeli Policy, 1979 - 1980; and Director, NEA/ARN, 1980 - 1982. Mr. Howell attended the National War College at Fort McNair, 1982 - 1983, and thereafter became deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Algiers, Algeria, 1983 - 1985. From September 1985 through January 1986, he was Deputy Director, Near East and South Asia, Politico-Military Affairs, and since then has been political adviser to the Commander in Chief, United States Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, FL.

Mr. Howell graduated from the University of Virginia (B.A., 1961; Ph.D., 1965), and he received a diploma from the National War College (1983). He is articulate in Arabic and French. Mr. Howell was born September 14, 1939, in Portsmouth, VA. He is married, has two sons, and resides in Arlington, VA.

 

Date
05/26/1987