16 February, 2010 03:21:00

The architect of the Doha crisis is a familiar name

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The US Ambassador LeBaron, who was responsible for attempting to interrupt a meeting between Erdoğan and Clinton, had previously spent six years assigned to Turkey.

It turns out the US Ambassador to Doha, Joseph LeBaron, who attempted to cut a meeting short between Prime Minster Tayyip Erdoğan and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had spent a combined six years between the 1960’s and 1980’s in Istanbul, Adana as well as Ankara. LeBaron’s area of expertise is intelligence and he speaks Turkish, Arabic, Persian and French fluently. When a one-on-one meeting held between Erdoğan and Clinton, which was scheduled for 20 minutes, went on for an hour, LeBaron wanted to enter the room in order to alert Clinton. Turkish officials attempted to stop LeBaron, however when he insisted, Erdoğan's political advisor Fuat Tanlay intervened. LeBaron went on to state; “This meeting must end, Clinton has an appointment with the Sheikh of Qatar and that is a more important meeting,” Tanlay responded by stating; “You are not the one to decide our importance. You can not insult my country. That is not your place.” The two diplomats were at each others’ throats until they were pulled away, and afterwards, supposedly LeBaron kicked the doors in anger. LeBaron had served in the US military in the early 1960’s and acted as an ‘intelligence officer’ for a spell for the US Air Force base in Incirlik, Adana. LeBaron served in Adana for three years and then soon after joined the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Continuing his career in diplomacy, LeBaron was then assigned to Doha as the Ambassador. In the 1980’s, LeBaron came to Turkey as a diplomat and served in the US Consulate in Istanbul and later in the embassy in Ankara.  
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