A U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State will not speak at Casper College this week because new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo canceled the speech, according to a news release from the college Monday afternoon.

"The new Secretary of State has ordered our upcoming speaker, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State (Timothy) Lenderking, to not come to Casper this week to speak. Secretary Pompeo is doing a policy review and has frozen all speaking and travel engagements," according to the news release.

Salah Malkawi, Getty Images
Mike Pompeo.      Salah Malkawi, Getty Images
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The college announced last week that Lenderking would speak about the Middle East on Thursday. He is deputy assistant secretary of state for Arabian Gulf affairs in the Near East Bureau at the U.S. Department of State.

He is a career foreign service officer who has been with the State Department since 1993.

Mr. Lenderking served previously as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 2013-2016. He served as the Director of the Pakistan Office at the Department of State from 2010-2013.

From 2008-2010, Mr. Lenderking completed two tours in Baghdad, the first as the Senior Democracy Advisor at the US Embassy, and the second as the Policy Advisor to LTG Charles Jacoby, Commanding General of Multi-National Forces Iraq (MNF-I), based at Camp Victory.

Before his Iraq tours, Mr. Lenderking served as the Economic Counselor and Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at US Embassy Kuwait. He was also the Political Counselor at Embassy Rabat from 2002-2006.

Mr. Lenderking’s other tours in the Foreign Service include serving as the Special Assistant to Under Secretary for Political Affairs Marc Grossman 2001-2002, as the Lebanon Desk Officer 2000-2001, and as a Watch Officer in the Operations Center. Mr. Lenderking also served in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and in Damascus, Syria.

The U.S. Senate on a 57-42 vote -- one of the slimmest margins for the job in recent history -- confirmed former CIA Director Pompeo as Secretary of State last week.

Pompeo replaced Rex Tillerson, who received 56 votes at his confirmation. President Donald Trump fired Tillerson in March.

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