Washington:
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has chosen Marc Grossman, a retired senior diplomat and former ambassador to Turkey, as the Obama administration's new special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, a senior State Department official said Monday.
Mr. Grossman, who left the State Department in 2005 and is the vice chairman of a consulting firm, will succeed Richard C. Holbrooke, who died of a torn aorta in December, leaving a void in the senior policy-making ranks on one of the White House's most pressing foreign-policy issues.
Mrs. Clinton met with Mr. Grossman on Monday and he was introduced to members of Mr. Holbrooke's staff, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the appointment was not yet public. Mr. Grossman must still undergo a vetting process, the official said, though Mrs. Clinton may announce his appointment as soon as Friday.
The Washington Post reported the news of Mr. Grossman's appointment on its Web site on Monday evening.
The search for Mr. Holbrooke's replacement was difficult, with Mrs. Clinton considering several senior diplomats before settling on Mr. Grossman. Among the other people on her list, officials said, was Strobe Talbott, a former deputy secretary of state who leads the Brookings Institution, and Frank G. Wisner, a former ambassador to Egypt, who was recently sent on a mission to prod former President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, to declare he would not run for re-election.
Mr. Holbrooke's post has been filled on an interim basis by his deputy, Frank Ruggiero, who served as the head of the provincial reconstruction team in the Afghan city of Kandahar.
Mr. Grossman, who now works for the Cohen Group, was assistant secretary of state for European affairs, in addition to his post in Turkey. He was also under secretary of state for political affairs, the highest ranking job in the State Department for a career diplomat.
If he passes his background checks, Mr. Grossman could face an early challenge in Pakistan, where the government has arrested an American official, Raymond A. Davis, in the killing of two Pakistanis. The United States protested the move, which it says violates the official's diplomatic immunity.