February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Susan Falvella-Garraty
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bush administration’s point person on Ireland, Richard Haass, was given ambassadorial rank by the U.S. Senate and promptly stepped into his role with a round of meetings with officials about the peace process last week. The nomination passed by unanimous consent last Tuesday evening.
Haass, a career foreign affairs advisor and current head of the U.S. State Department’s policy and planning, crammed 10 meetings with British, Irish, and Northern Irish representatives while on a short visit to London last Wednesday.
Haass met with Assembly leader David Trimble, the SDLP’s Seamus Mallon, Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams, the British Northern Ireland secretary John Reid, and Irish Secretary General Dermot Gallagher, among others. National Security Council staffer, Dick Norland, a holdover from the Clinton administration’s peace process efforts, also accompanied Haass.
"He worked very hard to cram in the meetings during such a short trip," an official said. "He was just sorry that he could not get to Belfast or Dublin on this trip." The official said Haass would visit those two cities in the coming weeks.
"Speculation in the press that Mr. Haass would not be involved in the [Irish] peace process was without merit," the official said. "The administration is committed to assisting when asked."
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The Haass nomination to receive ambassadorial ranking ran into trouble before the final confirmation vote by the full U.S. Senate. Senator Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, put a hold on the nomination because of Haass’s inclination to repeal some U.S. sanctions on Iraq and for the use of presidential special envoys, so common during the Clinton administration. In deference to that position, the White House refuses to recognize Haass’s role as a special envoy, but instead uses the term "special point person" for his intended work on the Irish peace process.
The Haass visit drew praise from Sinn Fein. "We appreciate the fact that Haass went to some pains to meet us and everyone else while saying that this administration was committed to continuing to support the peace process," a spokesman said.