The US Senate unanimously confirmed Ryan Crocker as the new ambassador to Kabul on Thursday, sending a veteran diplomat with vast experience in the world’s hotspots to strife-torn Afghanistan.
Lawmakers approved Crocker’s nomination by unanimous consent one week after President Barack Obama laid out the planned pace of the US troop draw-down from Afghanistan. Crocker knows Afghanistan well, having been among the team that re-opened the US embassy in Kabul in 2001 after the Taliban were ousted by the US-led invasion in the wake of the September 11th terrorist strikes.
But he will still walk a delicate tightrope trying to keep ties between Kabul and Washington on an even keel as US and international forces prepare to hand over security in the war-torn nation to Afghan forces by 2014.
US Senate confirms Crocker as Afghanistan envoy
