February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Ray O’Hanlon
Richard Haass, President Bush’s designated point man for Northern Ireland, might be heading for the West Bank instead of West Belfast.
Speculation has arisen in recent days that Haass, a recognized expert on Middle East politics, will be drafted by the Bush administration as a special envoy to the troubled region.
Such a move would cast doubt on Haass’s ability to devote much time, if any, to the peace process in Northern Ireland.
Haass was named as the State Department’s director of policy and planning in March and was also assigned the task of being a roving-ambassador with special responsibility for Ireland and the peace process.
As such, the Rhodes Scholar, who spent much of the 1990s working at the Brookings Institution, was immediately viewed as a de-facto U.S. envoy, although that term was not used by the Bush administration.
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Haass was mentioned as one of two leading candidates for the post of Middle East envoy in a recent report in the Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Given the recent level of conflict between Isr’l and the Palestinians, it would be expected that such a posting would occupy much or all of Haass’s work schedule.
One source familiar with foreign-policy matters suggested that Haass would relinquish his Irish portfolio if assigned Middle East duty.
Haass was attached to the National Security Council in the 1989-93 Bush administration and had special responsibility for the Middle East and South Asia.
At the same time, Haass was one of two individuals linked to the Middle East post by the Jerusalem Post. The other was Edward Djerejian, a former U.S. ambassador to both Isr’l and Syria who is presently attached to the Baker Center at Rice University in Texas.
Should Djerejian be assigned the Middle East, Haass would likely retain responsibility for Ireland as roving ambassador, a post that requires Senate confirmation.
Though he is seen as being primarily a Middle East expert, Haass has also written extensively on conflict resolution in the context of Northern Ireland.