WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated retired four-star Army Gen. John Abizaid, who oversaw U.S. Central Command during the initial years of the Iraq War, to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
U.S.-Saudi ties have been strained by the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which the kingdom has admitted. Trump has not yet decided on what retaliatory action to take and faces pressure from Congress and the government of Turkey. Khashoggi was killed Oct. 2 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and Turkish officials say high-level Saudi officials knew of a plot to assassinate him.
Born in California, Abizaid, 67, is of Lebanese descent and speaks Arabic. He ran U.S. Central Command from 2003 to 2007, overseeing strategy and joint operations in the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, and Central Asia.
Abizaid has a master’s degree in Middle Eastern studies from Harvard University. He is currently a fellow at the Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and runs JPA Partners, an international strategic consulting firm. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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