![\"Jordan's](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/safadi-jan11.jpg\" "\\"safadi-jan11\\"")
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I have to admit, my knowledge of foreign politics is probably not what it should be. I don’t recognize any of the faces in the picture above, but I do recognize the names listed in the caption. Second from left is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>; on the opposite side of the flag sits King Abdullah of Jordan<\/a>.<\/p>\n Also in the room, sitting at the far right in the photo, is Baylor graduate Ayman Safadi<\/a>, who earned his master’s in international journalism from BU in 1992. After graduation, he returned to the Jordan Times<\/em>, where he had worked previously, eventually becoming its editor-in-chief. Since then he has gone on to lead Jordan’s Royal Press Service and the Jordan Radio and Television Corporation, then served as spokesman for the United Nations mission in Baghdad. In 2005, he again returned to Jordan as editor-in-chief of al-Ghad<\/em>, Jordan’s only independent Arabic-language newspaper; while there, he led the successful effort to obtain the release of American journalist Jill Carroll, who was kidnapped in Iraq and held for almost three months.<\/p>\n Just over two years ago, Safadi was appointed to the ministerial-level post of King’s Advisor. In that capacity, he is second only to the Chief of the Royal Court among King Abdullah’s advisors. In September, he accompanied Abdullah to Washington, D.C.<\/a>, for talks with Netanyahu (as pictured above), U.S. President Barack Obama and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n