WASHINGTON — White House and other Biden administration officials tell NBC News that President Joe Biden has selected former Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides to be U.S. ambassador to Israel.
One administration official says Nides has already been offered the position. A White House spokesperson told NBC they were not commenting at this time, and that no nomination is final until it is announced.
It’s unclear when the White House will publicly announce Nides’ nomination, but he’ll have a difficult portfolio awaiting him if he’s confirmed by the Senate. Word of his selection came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to Israel and the West Bank to try to shore up a fragile cease-fire between Hamas and Israel.
Blinken told Andrea Mitchell in Jerusalem on Tuesday that the immediate U.S. focus is on addressing urgent humanitarian needs and that it “will take some time” before the environment is right for renewed negotiations toward a two-state solution.
Nides is a former Morgan Stanley executive and congressional aide who was confirmed once before by the Senate, in 2010, to serve as President Obama’s deputy secretary of state for management.
The Jerusalem Post earlier reported that Nides had been picked.
