Retired General John Abizaid was nominated by President Donald Trump to be the new American ambassador to Saudi Arabia, according to a Tuesday announcement by the White House.
Abizaid, the former head of U.S. Central Command, was nominated at a critical moment in diplomatic relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia, with Washington facing criticism from U.S. lawmakers over its support for Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen’s civil war.
The retired general served in the U.S. Army for 34 years, during which he rose from infantry platoon leader to four-star general, CENTCOM’s website says. In the course of four years, between 2003 and 2007, he was the head of CENTCOM and oversaw military strategy and joint operations in the Middle East, the Horn of Africa and Central Asia.
He is also a highly-decorated officer who has been awarded a number of medals, the website says. Abizaid is a former fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
He is yet to be confirmed by the Senate in order to become the new ambassador to Saudi Arabia, a post which has been vacant since January of last year when Joseph Westphal left. The president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has been acting as de facto U.S. ambassador to Riyadh by forging a bond with the kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
If confirmed, Abizaid will be latest retired general to be appointed by President Donald Trump, who previously appointed Jim Mattis as defense secretary and John Kelly as his chief of staff.
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