U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Likely to Take U.N. Post

Dec. 5, 2006 — -- In another significant change in the administration's Iraq policy, President Bush will soon replace the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, ABC News has learned.

Khalilzad, who has served in Iraq since June 2005, will return to the United States and is under "strong consideration" to be the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a senior Bush administration official told ABC News on Tuesday.

Khalilzad is expected to be replaced by Ryan Crocker, the current U.S. ambassador to Pakistan.

Unable to win Senate confirmation, current U.N. Ambassador John Bolton will resign when his appointment expires, the White House said Monday. Bolton's nomination sat in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for more than a year, blocked by Democrats and several Republicans.

Before surving in Iraq, Khalilzad was ambassador to Afghanistan from November 2003 to June 2005. Officials say he was eager to return to the United States.

A Sunni Muslim, he is one of the few Arabic speakers among the top administration officials.

He took the lead fotr the United States in trying to presure the Iraqis for reconciliation among Shias, Sunnis and Kurds, an effort that thus far has not been successful.