Hostage envoy named national security adviser

WASHINGTON (AFP) — U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday named his pointman for hostage situations, Robert O’Brien, to replace his hawkish national security adviser sacked just as relations with Iran are entering a new crisis point.

Trump made the announcement by Twitter and later appeared with O’Brien in front of reporters while traveling in California, where he said his new foreign policy aide was “highly respected.”

Last week, Trump abruptly fired John Bolton, a vigorous proponent of using U.S. military force abroad and one of the main hawks in the administration on Iran.

O’Brien, 53, has until now served as Trump’s envoy for situations involving U.S. hostages abroad.

He comes into the new job with backing from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior Republicans in Congress.

Bolton, by contrast, was a highly controversial figure in Washington. His instincts for an aggressive, interventionist foreign policy were at odds with Trump’s more isolationist stance.

Bolton “wasn’t getting along with people in the administration who I consider very important” and “wasn’t in line with what we were doing,” Trump said.

O’Brien, who will become the fourth national security adviser in Trump’s tumultuous first term, does not appear to have that problem.

“I think we have a very good chemistry together,” Trump said.

He arrives just as Trump is coming under pressure from some in Washington to go to war with Iran in retaliation for an attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia last weekend that has been blamed on Tehran.

Moments before naming O’Brien as his new adviser, Trump announced he was ordering “substantially” increased sanctions against Iran, which is already buckling under U.S. economic pressure.

A longtime lawyer and foreign policy adviser to Republicans, O’Brien has become one of Trump’s favorites for his work on behalf of Americans held prisoner in farflung places including North Korea and Turkey.

Trump said his work had been “unparalleled” and “tremendous.”

While such cases are termed “hostages” by Trump, this is far from always true. In the most unusual episode, O’Brien was dispatched to U.S. ally Sweden to attend the trial of U.S. rapper ASAP Rocky, who was accused of assault.

Although Bolton was seen as the ultimate representative of the neo-con wing in the Republican party, cheering for war in Iraq and pushing for regime change in Iran, O’Brien will bring his own hard edge to foreign policy.