KEY POINTS:
WASHINGTON - The US ambassador to Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, was named today as Washington's next envoy to the United Nations, the latest instalment of a major reshuffle linked to President Bush's impending Iraq policy makeover.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also announced that Ryan Crocker, a veteran diplomat with years of Middle East experience, would take over as ambassador to Iraq, tasked with implementing the new strategy for dealing with that crisis which Bush is to unveil Wednesday night local time.
Rice called the Baghdad and UN postings "two of the hardest and most consequential jobs in the world."
Crocker, 57, who Rice called "one of our most distinguished foreign service officers," has been the US ambassador to Pakistan since November 2004.
The nomination of the Afghan-born Khalilzad, the Bush administration's highest-ranking Muslim, had been expected since former UN envoy John Bolton resigned in December.
Khalilzad, 55, is seen as a neo-conservative with the same reputation for bluntness as the controversial Bolton, who was forced to quit after failing to secure Senate endorsement.
While considered an effective diplomat, Khalilzad, a Sunni Muslim, struggled during his 18 months in Baghdad to gain the confidence of Iraq's now dominant Shi'ites and failed to bring about the national reconciliation that had been one of his primary duties as ambassador.
Crocker is one of the State Department's most experienced Middle East experts, having served as ambassador to Lebanon, Kuwait and Syria and in other embassy positions in Iran, Qatar, Iraq and Egypt.
- AFP
