Obama nominates new ambassador to Libya

Deborah K. Jones to assume office held by Chris Stevens, killed in Benghazi terror attack last Sep. 11

13 March 2013, 9:50 pm

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Glass, debris and overturned furniture are strewn inside a room in the gutted US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, after an attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sept. 12, 2012. (photo credit: AP/Ibrahim Alaguri)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has nominated a longtime US diplomat to the Mideast as its next ambassador to Libya, filling the sensitive post that has been vacant since Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed in an attack on an American outpost on Sept. 11.

Deborah K. Jones has served in American embassies in Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and Syria as a career diplomat. She also worked in US embassies in Turkey and Ethiopia.

She would head the US diplomatic mission in Libya’s capital of Tripoli under the specter of increased tensions and tight security there since Stevens’ death.

Stevens was killed in a terror attack on the diplomatic mission while visiting Benghazi on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks against the US.