The then US Ambassador Peter Haas was spending his final days in Dhaka in the third week of July last year, as Bangladesh was engulfed in bloodshed during a mass uprising against Sheikh Hasina and her government.
Peter Haas, who had taken charge as US Ambassador in Dhaka in mid-March 2022, had gained a reputation for his vocal stance on democracy and human rights in Bangladesh. However, he remained largely silent in public when the student-led movement spread nationwide and ultimately toppled Sheikh Hasina.
In his final public appearance on 21 July 2024, Haas and other Western diplomats in Dhaka questioned the Bangladeshi authorities’ deadly response to the widespread student protests, sources concerned said.
During a meeting where then Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud showed a 15-minute video presentation blaming the demonstrators for the violence, Haas reportedly told the gathering, “I am surprised you did not show the footage of police firing at unarmed protesters.”
By that time, the death toll had already surpassed several hundred.
The following day, July 22, marked Peter Haas’s last working day in Dhaka. Since then, the United States Embassy in Dhaka has been without a full-fledged ambassador.
Haas departed for the United States early on July 23, 2024. There was no official or unofficial programme at the embassy on his final day, as it was closed due to a nationwide curfew following the volatile situation in the country.
He had received a farewell reception from embassy officials in mid-July and attended farewell receptions hosted by other diplomatic missions in Dhaka. Over the course of two weeks, he also joined several private farewell gatherings.
Ambassador Haas, however, did not have the opportunity to pay ceremonial farewell calls on the President or the Prime Minister, who flew to India within 13 days of Haas’s departure from Dhaka.
Haas was initially scheduled to be succeeded by David Mealy, but that appointment did not proceed after President Joe Biden decided to withdraw from the re-election race.
Following the change in Washington, the Trump administration has not yet indicated any fresh nomination for Dhaka.
On January 11 this year, Ambassador Tracey Ann Jacobson, a career diplomat, assumed her duties at the US Embassy in Dhaka and has been serving as Chargé d’Affaires, ad interim.
Diplomatic sources say she is expected to continue in this role until further notice, as the Trump administration has yet to prioritise filling the ambassadorial post.
During this prolonged gap, Jacobson has been leading the US mission, maintaining official engagements. She previously served as US Ambassador to Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kosovo, and held senior roles at the State Department and the National Security Council.
While the absence of a full ambassador is not uncommon in diplomatic practice, observers note that this unusually long vacancy signals Bangladesh’s diminished priority in Washington’s current diplomatic agenda.
Peter Haas had hinted to close circles in Dhaka, before leaving last July, that he intended to retire upon returning home. He followed through on that decision but later joined the private sector, becoming a Strategic Adviser to Excelerate Energy, Inc., a US-based LNG company located in The Woodlands, Texas.
In that capacity, he visited Bangladesh again in April this year, leading a delegation of US investors, including representatives from Meta, Visa, Chevron, Uber, MetLife, Mastercard, Boeing, and the US Soybean Export Council, to meet with Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on April 8 this year.