WASHINGTON — As the Islamic State has torn across Iraq and Syria, sending religious minorities fleeing for their lives, Congress created a new job at the State Department — one the president needs to fill immediately say those who pushed for the position.
The job: “Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia.”
Those regions “are the hot burning center” of the global problem of religious persecution, said Katrina Lantos Swett, who heads the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, which Congress created in 1998 to monitor the issue independent of the State Department.
Advocates for global religious freedom have lobbied for the position for years and some say it is possible that the White House will combine the envoy’s duties with those of the larger portfolio of the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.
The White House declined to comment Aug. 20 on that possibility. In July, President Barack Obama nominated Rabbi David Saperstein for the ambassador-at-large job; his nomination is pending before the Senate.
Lantos Swett said that while it seems as if Congress intended the ambassador-at-large and the special envoy to be two separate positions, Saperstein could handle both responsibilities. “A lot of people feel he would do an excellent job if this was rolled into his portfolio,” she said.
But Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., a lead sponsor of the bill for the special envoy, said the two jobs call for two people.
“There needs to be a person solely focused on the Middle East,” said Wolf spokesman Dan Scandling. “What is happening there demands the total — and focused — attention of a special envoy. The ambassador-at-large has the world. The special envoy would focus entirely on the Middle East.”
He added that while the ambassador must go through a Senate confirmation process, the envoy could be appointed and start serving far faster.
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