February 19, 2016
The Senate Friday confirmed Iranian-American Azita Raji to be the US ambassador to Sweden, the first Iranian-American ever to become a US ambassador.
Her nomination—along with those of others—had sat gathering dust in the Senate because Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, had refused to allow them to be voted as a sign of his opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran. Cruz had no objection to Raji or any of the other nominees, but merely wanted to show his strong opposition to the nuclear deal.
In the Senate, any one senator can put a “hold” on any nomination.
Cruz relented last week in exchange for the Senate leadership allowing a vote on a bill proposed by Cruz to rename the plaza in front of the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, as “Liu Xiaobo Plaza,” after pro-democracy dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Liu Xiaobo.
The Chinese government and many Americans opposed that bill as provocative. (In Iran, the government has renamed streets next to embassies after opponents of those governments, like “Bobby Sands Street,” which goes down one side of the British Embassy and is named after a man from Northern Ireland who died of a hunger strike in a British prison decades ago.)
Cruz’s holds on the nominations had frustrated Democrats who attempted to take them to the floor while Cruz was on the campaign trail. But Republican senators, including Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had objected on his behalf.
The Senate Friday approved three other ambassadorial nominations, two other State Department positions, the commissioner of the Food & Drug Administration and Adam Szubin as the Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, a position that causes much grief for the Islamic Republic.
Raji is not likely to hold her post for long. She is a political appointee, having won the nomination raising huge sums for President Obama’s campaigns. Like all other politically-grounded ambassadors, she will submit her resignation next January 20 when the new president takes office. She was nominated for the post in Sweden in October 2014.
Raji, 55, a mother of five, was born in Iran. Her family fled Iran when she was a teenager and she has lived in the United States since the age of 17. She made her career in finance, but left that field in 2008 when Obama was running for president. She helped raised $3 million for his campaigns and served as a national vice chair of his campaign for finance.
Sweden has given citizenship to 64,000 Iranians, who have been notable as one of that country’s most successful immigrant groups, with several winning seats in parliament.
The state news agency in Iran carried a story about Raji winning Senate approval.
