Richard Grenell will keep his position as Special Envoy for Serbia-Kosovo Negotiations after President Trump designated him as the Acting Director of US National Intelligence today.
In a press release, the White House confirmed Grenell’s official appointment to his new job, adding that he will also continue to serve as the US spokesman to the United Nations.
“Today, the President designated United States Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell as Acting Director of National Intelligence. Ambassador Grenell was confirmed to his role as Ambassador by the Senate in April 2018, and he has years of experience working with our Intelligence Community in a number of additional positions, including as Special Envoy for Serbia-Kosovo Negotiations and as United States spokesman to the United Nations. He is committed to a non-political, non-partisan approach as head of the Intelligence Community, on which our safety and security depend. The President has every confidence that Ambassador Grenell will perform his new duties with distinction.”
President Trump had announced his appointment earlier in a tweet:
“I am pleased to announce that our highly respected Ambassador to Germany, @RichardGrenell, will become the Acting Director of National Intelligence. Rick has represented our Country exceedingly well and I look forward to working with him. I would like to thank Joe Maguire for the wonderful job he has done, and we look forward to working with him closely, perhaps in another capacity within the Administration!”
Since President Trump appointed the US Ambassador in Berlin as his Special Envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Richard Grenell has successfully mediated the signing on two agreements – on the resumption of commercial flights between Belgrade and Pristina, and on restoring the railway link connecting the two countries.
He has put pressure on the new Kurti government to drop tariffs on Serbian goods imposed by the previous Kosovo government after repeated successful attempt by Serbia to block Kosovo’s membership in international organizations.
