GOVERNMENT

Richard Grenell

United States ambassador to Germany

Since his appointment as US ambassador to Germany in May 2018, Richard Grenell has gained a reputation as one of America’s most determined and outspoken representatives abroad. A veteran of politics and diplomacy -- he was the longest-serving US spokesman at the United Nations, and later the first openly gay spokesperson for a Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney -- Grenell has not shied away from challenging the German government and Europe more widely over its commercial relationship with the Iranian regime. In September 2019, Grenell called on the German government to fully ban Iran’s terrorist proxy, Hezbollah. “The EU maintains an artificial differentiation between the military and political arm of Hezbollah,” Grenell said in an interview. By contrast, the US remains “true to our principles and classifies Hezbollah as what it is: a terror organization.” (Photo: US Consulate Munich)