Abram Paley

Abram Paley is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative. He has two decades of US national security and foreign policy experience, with a focus on the Middle East, Iran, and China. 

In his most recent government service, Paley was acting special envoy for Iran from 2023 until 2025. Prior to that, he was Middle East advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris. 

As a career member of the Foreign Service, Paley served at US embassies in Israel, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and China. Paley was director for Yemen on the US National Security Council from 2014 to 2015. He has also worked within the Department of State’s Near Eastern Affairs Bureau on Yemen and the Gulf and as a senior advisor in the Office of the Sanctions Coordinator.

Paley has appeared as an expert on US and international media outlets including NPR, BBC, CNN, France 24, Al-Arabiya, Iran International, and Voice of America. He has been an adjunct lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Paley speaks Arabic, Hebrew, and Mandarin Chinese. He has a BA from New York University and an MA from Texas A&M University.