The US Senate confirmed Senator John Kerry as secretary of state last night, filling a key position on US president Barack Obama's retooled national security team.
The nomination was approved by a vote of 94-3. Only three senators, all Republicans, opposed the nomination: Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas and James Inhofe of Oklahoma. Mr Kerry voted present.
Mr Obama's first choice for the job, Susan Rice, the ambassador to the UN, withdrew as a candidate after Republicans criticised her for comments she made after September's deadly attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
Mr Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who has served in the Senate since 1985, had strong support on both sides of the aisle. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the panel he has led for the past four years, gave his nomination unanimous approval hours before the Senate vote.
In a statement, Mr Obama took note of Mr Kerry's bipartisan support.
"John has earned the respect of leaders around the world and the confidence of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, and I am confident he will make an extraordinary secretary of state," the president said.
Mr Kerry, who is a Vietnam veteran, a former presidential candidate and the son of a diplomat, will be inheriting a difficult agenda. The conflict in Syria has killed more than 60,000 people.
The international envoy on the Syrian crisis, Lakhdar Brahimi, who reported to the UN Security Council yesterday, has made no headway. Egypt is in turmoil. By Mr Kerry's own account, relations with Russia have deteriorated.
As chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee during Mr Obama's first term, Mr Kerry was a loyal ally of the White House and served as an interlocutor with president Bashar Assad of Syria and president Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, among others.
During a nearly four-hour confirmation hearing last week, Mr Kerry demonstrated familiarity with a broad range of issues but did not present any new ideas on how to address them.
Hillary Clinton, whose last day as secretary of state is Friday, said at a global forum at the Newseum yesterday that she expected her successor to undertake a new effort to narrow differences between Israel and the Palestinians. Taking note of the recent Israeli parliamentary elections, in which a centrist coalition made significant gains, Ms Clinton said that the shifting political landscape might facilitate progress.
"I actually think that this election opens doors, not nails them shut," she said. "I know that President Obama, my successor, soon to be secretary of state John Kerry, will pursue this."
Mr Kerry (69) suggested in his confirmation hearing last week that he would try to make headway in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although he provided no specifics as to how. "I have a lot of thoughts about that challenge," he said. "We need to try to find a way forward, and I happen to believe that there is a way forward."
Mr Obama has also named former Republican senator for Nebraska Chuck Hagel to succeed Leon Panetta as secretary of defence, and John Brennan, Mr Obama's chief counter-terrorism adviser, as CIA director, permanently replacing David Petraeus, who resigned in November.
New York Times