Afif Safieh is a Palestinian diplomat. Safieh was involved in back-channel talks with Israel, hosted in Stockholm, that began in 1988. He was a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council (RC) and has held a number of diplomatic postings, including as PLO representative in Moscow (2008-2009); in Washington, DC (2005-2008); to the Vatican (1995-1998), in London (1990-1995); and in the Netherlands (1987-1990). Before that, he was deputy head of the PLO delegation in Geneva, and to the UN, as well as a member of Yasser Arafat’s office in Beirut. He also served as Deputy Director of the PLO Observer Mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva, and was in charge of European Affairs and UN institutions at Yasser Arafat’s office in Beirut. After twenty-seven years of exile, Afif Safieh was the first PLO official to return to Jerusalem for a visit in December 1993, but was denied family reunification in his home town.