Friday 26 June 2009

Dennis Ross Officially Nominated as Barack Obama's Assistant


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26/06/2009 The White House Thursday named veteran Middle East envoy Dennis Ross to a key job overseeing policy in a vast region encompassing the Middle East, the Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Asia.

Ross's move from a low profile job in the State Department to the White House had been the subject of intense speculation in Washington's rumor-heavy foreign policy community.

The former Clinton administration pointman on Israeli-Palestinian talks will serve as special assistant to the president to oversee a region encompassing the Middle East, the Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Asia.

The White House said he would work with senior officials on some of the most testing US foreign policy challenges, including Iran and Iraq, but denied his new role would conflict with existing US special envoys.

"What the president has done is simply add to a very strong national security team with Dennis ... given the list of countries that they'll be plenty busy," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "I don't think that anybody should, though, believe that this will conflict or supersede the important work that special envoys are doing on the ground in many of these places."

Ross had been serving as a special advisor for the Gulf and southwest Asia at the State Department. He was the head of policy planning at the State Department during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, and the long-time diplomat also served as a senior-level Obama advisor during the 2008 White House race.

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