March 25
Veteran diplomat Christopher Hill, President Barack Obama's nominee to be ambassador to Iraq, is expected to pass the first Senate hurdle to confirmation. But he faces a fight from some Republicans who wonder whether his lack of experience in the Middle East makes him unsuitable.
Hill is to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday. The panel's Democratic chairman and its ranking Republican both support Hill's nomination, which is probably headed to the full Senate for a vote.
The crunch probably will come on the floor. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., has indicated he may use his prerogative to hold up the nomination once it reaches the floor, although it's not clear that his and other objections would prevail.
Hill is best known for his role in the Bush administration as chief U.S. negotiator in nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea. He has experience in the Balkans but never served in the Middle East; he speaks Polish, Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian.
"I have every confidence that Ambassador Hill is the right person to represent the United States in Baghdad," Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the committee chairman, said Tuesday.
"President Obama has chosen one of our very best to help bring lasting peace to Iraq," Kerry added. He predicted that "those of my colleagues who may not yet be familiar with his service to the nation will be as impressed by his skill and dedication as I have been."
Hill's nomination has been in doubt since several Republicans, including Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, declared that Hill lacks Middle East diplomatic credentials. They urged Obama to reconsider the nomination.
Brownback has been the most outspoken Hill opponent. He and Hill have a long-running dispute over how to handle human rights abuses by the North Koreans.
But the political tide appeared to swing back in Hill's favor last week when Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee and a widely respected voice on foreign policy matters, threw his public support behind the nominee.
The U.S. ambassador in Baghdad is at the center of a complex campaign to nudge the Iraqis toward greater stability as they prepare for national elections in December and U.S. troops begin to depart in large numbers.
Six years after the U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq is at a delicate stage of an attempted transition from open warfare to the beginning of political reconciliation and recovery.
Lugar said in a statement prepared for delivery at Wednesday's hearing that Hill's experience in handling the North Korean nuclear issue as a regional matter involving Japan, South Korea, China and Russia could serve him well in Iraq. Lugar said success in Iraq will increasingly depend on diplomatic factors such as efforts to cultivate more regional cooperation with Iraq — including with neighbors such as Iran, Syria and Jordan.
Lugar praised Hill for "outstanding diplomatic and managerial skills" and innovative and meticulous work.
The recently departed U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, was among the State Department's most seasoned and respected Arab specialists. He was ambassador to Pakistan before arriving in Baghdad in March 2007. He also had served in Syria, Kuwait and Lebanon. He was widely credited with creating an unusually effective partnership with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, who has since been promoted to chief of U.S. Central Command. Crocker has retired.
See also:
No comments:
Post a Comment