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Incoming secretary of state Clinton to name Dennis Ross as top adviser on Mideast, Iran
By The Associated Press
Tags: Barack Obama, Israel News 

Dennis Ross, a former Middle East peace envoy who served under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, will in all likelihood be appointed a special adviser for the Middle East and Iran under incoming secreatry of state Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton is quietly building a new State Department team with seasoned diplomats as she prepares for her confirmation hearings next week, according to Democratic sources and officials familiar with the transition.

The incoming secretary of state also plans to name former UN ambassador Richard Holbrooke to be special adviser for Pakistan and Afghanistan, they said.
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Clinton has settled on choices for a number of top positions, including high-profile special envoys who played prominent roles in her husband's administration for South Asia, and pointmen for East Asia and Europe, they said. She will also keep at least two career foreign service officers in critical posts, they said.

Ross was the lead U.S. negotiator in Mideast peace efforts for both Presidents George H.W. Bush and Clinton. He played a major part in an interim agreement between Israel and the Palestinians in 1995 and worked on the failed effort to arrange peace between Israel and Syria and the ultimately unsuccessful 2000 Camp David talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Clinton will retain respected career diplomat William Burns in his current position as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the department's third-highest ranking job, and keep on Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy, who oversees the department's far-flung worldwide operations, the sources said.

In addition, they said, Clinton will select Kurt Campbell, a former Clinton administration Pentagon official, to be assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and Philip Gordon, a former director for European affairs at the National Security Council, to be assistant secretary of state for European affairs.

She also intends to name Princeton University professor Anne-Marie Slaughter to be the State Department's next director of policy planning, they said.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the appointments, some of which require Senate confirmation, have not been formally announced. Clinton herself will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday for what many expect will be a relatively painless confirmation hearing.

Her choices for top positions - including earlier selections of James Steinberg and Jacob Lew, both former Clinton administration officials, to be deputy secretaries of state - appear to reflect a desire to bring back or retain current expertise in many of what will become President-elect Barack Obama's most serious foreign policy challenges.

Holbrooke and Ross have long histories of involvement in some of the most intense diplomatic negotiations in U.S. history.

Holbrooke brokered the peace deal that ended the 1992-1995 Balkans war. He was also U.S. ambassador to Germany and envoy to the United Nations during President Bill Clinton's administration and gave foreign policy advice to Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primaries last year.

Burns, who has previously served in President George W. Bush's administration as U.S. ambassador to Russia and assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, was widely anticipated to be kept in his current job, in which he has been a key player in international efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

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      1.   Dennis Ross 12:45  |  The Teacher/Instruct 10/01/09
      2.   Unbelievable! Of ALL people, Clinton knows Ross`s bad advice. 12:51  |  disgusted american 10/01/09
      3.   All Is Not Well In The Land Of Hope-N-Change. (LOL) 13:20  |  vit 10/01/09
      4.   Good choice 16:54  |  Joe 10/01/09
      5.   Mr.Ross 19:13  |  J.Hardisty 10/01/09
      6.   How sickening! 19:39  |  David James Vickery 10/01/09
      7.   The big O is coming back - Obama, clintOn, rOss, OslO 20:21  |  Boris 10/01/09
      8.   Recipe for peace on earth is simple: Saudi Plan! 20:25  |  Ivar 10/01/09
      9.   "Seasoned" diplomats will repeat past failures 21:13  |  bernard ross 10/01/09
      10.   Dennis 23:19  |  Marcos 10/01/09
      11.   Holbrooke - Only One with Successful Record 00:56  |  Mark of Lewiston 11/01/09
      12.   Not him again 03:21  |  Refugee 11/01/09
      13.   OBAMA & Ku-Klux-Klan 18:00  |  The Teacher/Instruct 17/01/09
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