The Senate has confirmed President Trump’s nominee to be the new U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Though Trump has been in office for more than two years, it will be the first ambassador of his administration to this key middle eastern ally. The Senate approved retired Gen. John Abizaid by a 92-7 vote on Wednesday. The vote comes almost five months after Trump first announced his intention to nominate Abizaid, a 68-year-old retired four-star Army general, who led U.S. Central Command during the contentious Iraq war. There are several takeaways from Abizaid’s confirmation. First, he fills a 27 month gap of the U.S. not having an ambassador to Saudi Arabia, a period that saw the best bi-lateral relations between Washington and Riyadh in years, likely since the administration of George Herbert Walker Bush during the first Gulf War when the U.S. helped protect the Kingdom against the possible Iraqi […]