US appoints new ambassador to Tunisia

Three days after Moncef Marzouki was elected the new President of Tunisia, the US administration has appointed Jacob Walles a its ambassador to Tunis. Walles will take over from his predecessor Gordon Gray on Thursday. Political observers said that Walles’s appointment indicated a new relationship with the Libya. Walles was a senior official in US State Department, and is a reputed diplomat. Others said that Walles’s appointment marks growing US interests in the new regime in Tunisia. Jacob Walles was a member of the Senior US Foreign Service with the rank Minister Counselor.  He is currently Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, responsible for US relations with Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians.  From 2009 to 2010, he was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.  He served as Consul General and Chief of Mission in Jerusalem from 2005 to 2009.  Previously, he served as the Director of the Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs and as Deputy Principal Officer at the US Consulate General in Jerusalem.  Earlier in his career, he served in a number of other positions involving Middle Eastern affairs, including Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Special Assistant for the Middle East Peace Process in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and First Secretary at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv.   The US administration earlier praised the Marzouki’s appointment as president, stating that the election was a positive step in Tunisia’s democratic transition. The US also expressed its willingness to cooperate with Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda party who won the country's first democratic elections after the Arab Spring uprisings on October 23. In addition, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated on November 7 that Ennahda must persuade secular parties to work with them, and that the US would work with them too.