After 18 months without an ambassador, Americans in Iceland can breathe a sigh of relief that US President Donald Trump has selected a nominee for them.
According to a statement from the White House, Iceland’s new US ambassador will be, pending confirmation by the Senate, Dr. Jeffrey Ross Gunter.
The White House says Gunter “is a physician and healthcare executive” who runs his own rural dermatological practice, and speaks Spanish, French, and Dutch.
Conservative news service Washington Times adds that Gunter is also a leader of the Republican Jewish Coalition, “founded in the mid-1980s by Trump ally and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. In 2016, RJC leaders including Dr. Gunter served on a major fundraising campaign with the Republican National Committee for the Trump Victory Fund.”
If confirmed by the Senate, Gunter will make up for an absence in the post of about a year and a half. The last US ambassador to Iceland, Obama appointee Robert Barber, was nominated in 2013 and vacated his position shortly after the 2016 presidential elections. Barber’s time in Iceland was a colourful one, marked by both the light-hearted and the peculiar.
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