| From Foreign Policy, just a few paragraphs to illustrate the problem for Champ these days. He can't afford to make these kinds of mistakes at any time, and he especially can't make them now that the Egyptians and Saudis are angry over his Iran and Syria policies. |
The Obama administration has decided to drop its initial pick for U.S. ambassador to Egypt, leaving a vitally important diplomatic post vacant during a time of unusually strong tensions between Washington and one of its most important Middle Eastern allies.
| This may turn out to be a blessing for both us and Egypt. The #2 man at our embassy, the Charge d'Affairs, is David Satterfield, a seasoned diplomat with a lot of experience in the region. He's known -- whether he's trusted of course isn't something we'll know. But he very likely can get an audience with the Egyptian government without getting their hackles up... |
Sources familiar with the matter say that Robert Ford -- the highly-respected, Arabic-speaking career diplomat and current ambassador to Syria -- was withdrawn from consideration for the Cairo post after some representatives of Egypt's military regime quietly indicated that they didn't want him in the job because of his stated willingness to negotiate with some of Syria's Islamist militants and political groups.
| And, more importantly, that he might try to do the same in Egypt... |
Secretary of State John Kerry tapped Ford for the post this summer, and the White House had hoped to formally nominate him early next year. Instead, people familiar with the situation say the administration has decided to keep Ford in his current job in Syria -- and its primary intermediary to the country's fractious opposition groups -- and find a new pick for the high-profile Cairo slot. With the Senate out of session and mired in partisan deadlock, that could take months.
Obama administration officials confirm that Ford faced some opposition in Cairo, but said the primary reason that he won't be getting the position is the importance of his current job as the primary U.S. liaison to Syria's rebels. Ford has spent the past few months shuttling between Washington, Geneva and Istanbul as part of an effort to persuade opposition leaders to take part in peace talks scheduled for late January.
"Ambassador Ford is doing a phenomenal job working on Syria during an incredibly intensive time heading into the Geneva II conference. It's a top priority job on a top priority issue, and everyone from the president on down has trust in Robert to handle it, and I don't think anyone's pausing to think about the future," a senior State Department official said. "The president, and the secretary, and the entire administration have enormous respect for the job he has done on Syria -- here in Washington and in Damascus -- and they feel it's vital for him to keep working on this issue."
| That's what they say when they can't get done what they want to get done... |
"This is a man who is literally willing to sit across the table from Islamists who are worse than the Muslim Brotherhood, so it's baffling the White House would think he's the right person to go to Egypt," an Arab diplomat familiar with the Egyptian thinking told The Cable. "He is a good man, but he's absolutely the wrong person for this job, at least right now." |