Afif Safieh was born in Jerusalem in 1950. He studied in Jerusalem at the 'College Des Fre'res' and obtained his licence in Political Science and International Relations from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium in 1972. In 1974, he finished his cycle superieur (3eme cycle) in Political Science from the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Paris. From 1976 until 1978, he was deputy director of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Observer Mission to the United Nations in Geneva. Between 1978 and 1981, he was staff member in President Arafat's office in Beirut, in charge of European Affairs and UN institutions. From 1981 until 1985, he was a researcher at the Centre for European Studies in the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Between 1985 and 1987, he was a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs and from 1987 until 1990 he was PLO representative to the Netherlands. He was involved in November-December 1988 in Stockholm negotiations that led to the official and direct American-Palestinian dialogue and was nominated, Palestinian General Delegate to the United Kingdom in September 1990. In January 1995, he was invited to join the International Board of Trustees of Bethlehem University, the Vatican-sponsored University in Palestine. Nominated Palestinian General Delegate to the Holy See, he presented his letter of credentials to His Holiness Pope John ll on November 6, 1995. In November 2005, he assumed his duty as Head of the PLO Mission in Washington. Compilations of his articles have appeared in two books: Self Determination, (Jerusalem: Al-Fajr Printing Press, 1986; co-authored with his wife Christ'l Leclercq) and One People Too Many? (The Hague, 1987) He is married and has two girls, Diana and Randa.