Leading pro-independence hawk quits State Department
Nicholas Burns, the third man of US diplomacy and one of the loudest advocates of the independence of Kosovo, has resigned as undersecretary of state and will be leaving the State Department in March.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Monday, January 21, 2008
He will be succeeded by US Ambassador to Russia William Burns. Burns' decision to resign was unexpected, given his active participation in negotiations on several key issues - Kosovo, sanctions against Iran and an agreement on nuclear weapons between the US and India.
Nicholas Burns is the highest ranking of some 20 top State Department officials to leave the Bush administration in the past year. He explained the move with personal reasons, i.e. the needs of his family.
Analysts reiterate that this phrase was also used by others, who later turned out to be leaving Bush's team due to political disagreement.
Burns has occupied the post of undersecretary of state for political affairs for the past three years, but he first became involved in diplomacy 26 years ago. He was the spokesman of former State Department chief Madeleine Albright, and ambassador to Greece and NATO. Apart from his engagement over the Iranian nuclear program, he will be most remembered for his foreign political influence in the former Yugoslavia.
Nicholas Burns has been for years one of the strongest advocates of the idea that the Kosovo crisis can be resolved only by recognizing Kosovo's independence. He was the first US diplomat to say that the US would acknowledge Kosovo even without a UN decision.
