Aliyar Lebbe Abdul Azeez
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka
The General Conference elected Ambassador Aliyar Lebbe Abdul Azeez as President of the IAEA's 58th General Conference on 22 September 2014.
Ambassador Azeez serves as Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN and other International Organizations in Vienna, with bilateral accreditation as Ambassador to the Republic of Austria and several other countries in the region. Currently, he is Chairman of the Multilateral Diplomatic Committee and Working Group A of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). He is also Acting President of the Industrial Development Board of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). He headed the Vienna Chapter of the Group of 77 and China as the Group celebrated its 50th anniversary in the first half of 2014.
In the Sri Lanka Foreign Service, Ambassador Azeez has held several assignments, including: Deputy Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York (2005-2008); Minister Counsellor, Sri Lanka High Commission in Canberra (2003-2005); Second Secretary, Sri Lanka Permanent Mission in Geneva (1993-1996); Deputy Director General for UN and Multilateral Affairs (2009); and Director General for Middle East and Africa (2009-2011).
He has also served in a number of other posts, including as Director for Treaty, Environment and Law of the SAARC Secretariat in Kathmandu (1999-2001) and Deputy Director of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process in the Prime Minister's Office (2002-2003).
Ambassador Azeez holds a Master of Law degree from Tribhuvan University and a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Colombo. He also holds a Certificate in Diplomatic Studies from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. He has authored articles on a variety of subjects and writes poetry in his native language.
Born in Kalmunai in eastern Sri Lanka, Ambassador Azeez is married to Mahira Abusalihu and has two sons