Incoming House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., is riled about President Barack Obama’s recess appointment of Robert Ford as the first U.S. ambassador to Syria in nearly six years. “I am deeply disappointed that the president decided to make such a major concession to the Syrian regime," she says,
according to The Hill.
"Using this congressional recess to make an appointment that has far-reaching policy implications despite congressional objections and concerns is regrettable." The United States withdrew its ambassador to Syria in February 2005 amid concern that nation assisted in the assassination of Lebanon Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
“During the past two years, Syria has continued to sponsor violent extremism and pursue dangerous weapons programs, and has also supplied long-range missiles to Hezbollah and reasserted its destabilizing influence in Lebanon at the expense of that nation's sovereignty," Ros-Lehtinen says.
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