TheFace: Sarah A. Assiri, first secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Sarah A. Assiri. (AN photo by Ziyad Alarfaj)

• Assiri joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2009, motivated by an admiration of the late Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal

Sarah A. Assiri is a first secretary who works with the Yemen Comprehensive Humanitarian Operations Support Center (YCHO), established in 2018. She works with a team to coordinate and help UN NGOs and INGOs working in Yemen to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people.
Assiri joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2009, motivated by an admiration of the late Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, and worked in his office for almost seven years. She was also inspired by Dr. Thurayya Obeid, who was the executive director of the UN Population Fund and is now a Shoura Council member. She also help organizing conferences of Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir, in which she sees an immediate opportunity to learn from the minister.
Assiri said that working closely with Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed bin Saeed Al-Jaber, who is the executive director of YCHO, and the supervisor of the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen, has been an opportunity to expand her understanding of diplomacy.
Assiri received her first international training in (2012) in Berlin in the Federal Foreign Office. She attended international meetings and conferences and attended several high-level meetings in Saudi Arabia and the UN.
She had an opportunity to speak about Yemen and Saudi efforts to support the humanitarian situation there, as well as discuss the YCHO plan, during the ECOSOC annual meetings of the UN in 2018.
Assiri is a published writer. Her first book, Contemplations, was about her grandmother’s battle with Alzheimer’s before her death. She is currently writing her first novel addressing topics of day to day life and human relations.
She is also a blogger with an interest in art and silent films, especially the work of Charlie Chaplin. She is a graduate of King Saud University with a master’s degree in English literature. She is a fan of W.B. Yeats, Joyce, Shakespeare and Arabic poetry.