US Senate confirms Jeff Flake as the new ambassador to Turkey

* Photo: Wikipedia

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The US Senate confirmed on Tuesday (October 26) former Senator Jeff Flake to be the US's new ambassador to Turkey.

It has approved the former lawmaker from Arizona via voice vote following the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's October 19 approval of his nomination. He will now succeed Ambassador David Satterfield.

In a brief message after this confirmation, Flake has tweeted, "Honored to be confirmed by my former colleagues in a bipartisan manner."

Honored to be confirmed by my former colleagues in a bipartisan manner https://t.co/8gyK2M4Uap

— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) October 26, 2021

As reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), nominated in mid-July, Flake was a key Republican ally for Biden during last year's White House race, and endorsed the Democratic then-nominee after establishing himself as a Republican long at odds with former President Donald Trump.

Flake served in both the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his time in Congress, which spanned nearly two decades. Jeff Flake was among a bevy of State Department nominees held up by Senator Ted Cruz.

The Texas Republican staged a months-long effort to stymy diplomatic nominations from being taken up within the Senate in a failed bid to get the Biden administration to impose sanctions on those involved in a pipeline that will transport gas from Russia to Germany and the wider EU.

US President Joe Biden has refused to impose the economic penalties, and struck a deal with Germany to assuage the US' largely geopolitical concerns over the pipeline. Nonetheless, Cruz, a Republican who has irked many in his own party as well as Biden's Democrats, continued his protest. 

Over five dozen nominees to fill critical diplomatic roles were reportedly left in limbo by his legislative maneuvering.

Emphasis on journalists in Turkey

Jeff Flake previously said that there were several issues that Turkey and the US worked on together. Listing Ukraine, Georgia, humanitarian aid to Syria and Afghanistan, he criticized Ankara's stance on human rights. He underlined that the number of jailed journalists in Turkey was higher than any other country in the world, except for China. (TP/SD)