WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Friday six of President Barack Obama’s nominees for ambassadorships and senior positions at the State Department after GOP presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas dropped his opposition.
The nominees were approved by voice vote. The approvals came after Democrats said Republicans were holding up the nominations to undermine Obama’s agenda in his final year in office. Cruz placed a blanket hold last year on all nominees for State Department positions requiring Senate confirmation, due in part to his opposition to the nuclear deal Obama and other nations brokered with Iran.
Phil Novack, a Cruz spokesman, said Friday that the senator removed his hold on State Department nominees after the Senate passed by voice vote legislation written by Cruz to rename the plaza in front of the Chinese embassy in Washington as Liu Xiaobo Plaza.
Liu is a Chinese activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner imprisoned on charges of inciting state subversion.
Novack said Cruz would continue to oppose the Iran nuclear deal.
The State Department nominees approved are Thomas A. Shannon Jr. to be undersecretary of state for political affairs and Brian Egan to be the department’s legal adviser.
The U.S. ambassadors approved Friday are: Azita Raji, to be ambassador to Sweden; Samuel D. Heins, to be ambassador to Norway; John L. Estrada, to be ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago; and David McKean, to be ambassador to Luxembourg.
The Senate also confirmed Sunil Sabharwal to be alternate executive director of the International Monetary Fund.