Australian-born Mr Wolfensohn will soon retire as president of the World Bank.
US secretary of state Condoleeza Rice, announcing the appointment, emphasised that it had the support of all members of the “quartet” of Middle East peace partners – the US, EU, the United Nations and Russia. The latter three members have for some time urged the US to name a special envoy in the Middle East, in recognition of the seriousness of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Until now Mr Wolfensohn has had no association with the Iraq war or with the Bush administration; he was appointed to the World Bank by former US president Bill Clinton.
In the past 10 years he has earned a reputation for being a passionate and charismatic anti-poverty champion. He is expected to bring a high level of intensity to his new job, where he has said he will start doing “preliminary work” immediately even though he does not formally begin until June 1. In addition, he will bring considerable development experience to an area of the Middle East that the Bush administration has so far thought of primarily as a security question.
