Donald Trump nominates former Iraq war general to be Saudi Arabia ambassador

The post has been vacant since president took office in 2017

Donald Trump has named retired General John Abizaid, former head of US Central Command, as his nominee for the next ambassador to Saudi Arabia. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Donald Trump has finally nominated a US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, nearly two years after taking office.

The president has nomiated retired four-star Army General John Abizaid to the post at a crucial time in diplomatic relations between Washington and Riyadh given the controversy over the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.

Mr Abizaid will have to confirmed by the US Senate before taking up his post.

Mr Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and others in the administration have placed the blame for leaving the crucial diplomatic post vacant on Senate Democrats.

However, the president had not nominated anyone for the job until now despite making a state visit to Saudi Arabia last year and touting the ties between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and White House advisor Jared Kushner.

Mr Abizaid, a Lebanese American, is best known for leading US Central Command from July 2003 to March 2007, overseeing operations in the Middle East, the Horn of Africa and Central Asia.

He had opposed a troop surge in Iraq during his time at the helm, instead wanting US troops to focus on training Iraqis.

When then-President George W Bush disagreed and sent 30,000 additional troops in 2007, they came under the command of then-General David Petraeus and Mr Abizaid retired later that year.

He is currently a scholar at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University and holds a Masters in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University.

Experts have said Mr Abizaid’s nomination points to the president’s emphasis on US-Saudi Arabian military cooperation - the two countries signed an arms deal last year worth up to $110bn.

Mr Trump promised “severe consequences” over the killing of Mr Khashoggi, a permanent US resident. Saudi leadership has denied any involvement in the murder which Turkey has alleged was carried out by a Saudi "hit squad". Despite the international outcry Mr Trump has said he will not void the arms deal.

Former US ambassador to the kingdom, Robert Jordan, told NPR: "You can't really deal with the highest levels of the government on the ground without an ambassador there and without someone who is constantly beating the drum for American interests”.

He called Mr Kushner “an inexperienced freelancer”.

Ambassador Joseph Westphal, appointed by Barack Obama, was the last to fill the diplomatic seat.