Lenderking served as a deputy assistant secretary of state focused on the Persian Gulf during the Trump administration.
He will take the lead on what is expected to be a sharp turn in policy on Yemen, where Houthi movement is fighting a US-backed coalition that includes Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The US stopped its policy of refueling Saudi and Emirati warplanes in 2018, but continued providing intelligence support to the coalition despite congressional uproar over the American role in the conflict, Foreign Policy reported.
Lenderking’s appointment comes just a week after Biden tapped Robert Malley, who helped negotiate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, to serve as special envoy for Iran. Malley had warned that the Trump administration’s maximum pressure approach against Iran accomplished little.
The National and the Wall Street Journal first reported Lenderking’s expected appointment.
The Saudi-led coalition has been criticized for indiscriminately bombing Yemeni civilians and targeting Yemen’s crumbling infrastructure. In 2018, after the Trump administration certified that the coalition was making a good faith effort to reduce civilian casualties in the conflict, Lenderking said the United States believed military pressure against the Houthis was “appropriate,” but gave Riyadh “just above a passing grade” on preventing harm.
During the Trump administration, Lenderking frequently travelled to the region to try to advance negotiations between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis.