Reply #5: Negroponte Quits, Bush Names Khalilzad New Ambassador to Iraq

[DoYouEverWonder]

WASHINGTON, 12 March 2005 — President Bush has named Zalmay Khalilzad, the ambassador to Afghanistan and a long-time national security adviser, as the new US ambassador to Baghdad, administration officials announced Thursday.

Khalilzad, an Afghan-American citizen, will replace John Negroponte, who is said to have found the job so “aggravating” he left after less than a year there. Last month, Bush named Negroponte as America’s first director of National Intelligence.

Khalilzad will take over one of the most closely watched and dangerous US diplomatic posts. Officials did not say who would succeed him in Afghanistan.

The new ambassador to Baghdad is expected to work with the new Iraqi government as it writes a new constitution and holds another round of elections in December. He will also be expected to work on smoothing out differences between factions in the new government — whose formation is now being negotiated by Iraqi leaders.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/12n/Negroponte%20Quits,%20Bush%20Names%20Khalilzad%20New%20Ambassador%20to%20Iraq.htm