US expected to name former Cheney aide as Syria envoy
The Trump administration is expected to name John Hannah the next US Syria envoy.
![90664853 WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 17: L to R, Michael Rubin, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Michael Doran, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, and John Hannah, senior counselor at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, testify during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing titled "White House Narratives on the Iran Nuclear Deal," on Capitol Hill, May 17, 2016, in Washington, DC. Ben Rhodes, White House Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communication, has been und](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2018/02/GettyImages-531889100.jpg/GettyImages-531889100.jpg?h=a5ae579a&itok=UvtNg1U3)
WASHINGTON — The Donald Trump administration is expected to name John Hannah as the next US Syria envoy, as it seeks to reinvigorate the UN-led Geneva negotiations and advance a political resolution to the Syrian conflict, multiple Syria experts and a US official told Al-Monitor.
Hannah, who served as the top national security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, currently is a senior counselor to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). Before serving as Cheney’s deputy national security adviser for the Middle East (2001-2004) and then national security adviser (2005-2009), Hannah was a senior State Department official in both the Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush administrations, serving on the policy planning staff under veteran Middle East peace negotiator Dennis Ross. Hannah did not respond to an emailed query from Al-Monitor.