WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Career diplomat and former Iraq point man Robert Ford was named in a recess appointment as the U.S. envoy to Damascus, the White House announced.
U.S. President Barack Obama made six appointments to ambassador positions, with Ford's new post among the orders. The White House noted that all six appointments have been waiting for U.S. Senate action for at least five months.
Obama nominated Ford, the former deputy chief of mission in Iraq, in February to serve as U.S. envoy to Damascus. He becomes the first envoy to Damascus since Washington severed diplomatic ties with Syria in 2005.
U.S. Republican lawmakers protested the February nomination in part because of Hezbollah and Scud missile concerns.
U.S. and Israeli officials have expressed concern over long-range missile transfers from Syria to Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon. Israeli officials in April and again in May said Syrian support for Hezbollah was upsetting the delicate security situation in the region.
Washington has moderated its stance on Damascus following a policy of engagement embraced by the Obama administration, however.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a November interview with Lebanese newspaper an-Nahar that Washington wasn't interested in engagement for the sake of engagement.
"We are engaging to advance our interests and to find areas where cooperation can promote mutual interests," she was quoted in a State Department transcript as saying.
