David Satterfield leading candidate to become US ambassador to Egypt

David Satterfield, a veteran US diplomat with extensive experience in the Middle East, is the leading candidate to become US ambassador to Egypt, US officials say.

Satterfield has served as acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs since September 2017 and will end his role if the US Senate confirms David Schenker for the position, the officials told Reuters on Thursday.

Egypt has been without an ambassador for a year but is of strategic importance to the US due to its control of the Suez Canal, a border treaty with Israel and its status as the most populous Arab nation.

The White House, which nominates US ambassadors, and the State Department both declined to comment on Satterfield emerging as the leading candidate.

The veteran US official has good contacts with the Egyptian military due to his 2009 to 2017 service heading the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) in the Sinai Peninsula, which oversees security provisions of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty.

He previously served as the deputy US chief of mission in Iraq, ambassador to Lebanon, and director for Near Eastern affairs on the National Security Council.

Despite concerns over human rights in Egypt, the militaries from both countries share deep ties and will take part next month in Exercise Bright Star, a joint training to improve the ability to operate together.

US President Donald Trump signalled warmer relations with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi by unfreezing $195 million in military aid withheld over human rights concerns.

Sisi led the 2013 military coup of Egypt's first freely-elected president Mohamed Morsi and was elected as president in 2014.

Earlier this year he was re-elected following a vote in which all serious opponents had been detained or shackled with unsubstantiated charges.

Since the military coup, Egyptian authorities have launched a bloody and far-reaching crackdown on dissent, detaining thousands of political opponents and suppressing civil society and the media.