Frank Ruggiero replaces Holbrooke as acting US special envoy

WASHINGTON - Career civil servant Frank Ruggiero has taken over as the acting US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan following the death of Richard Holbrooke, the State Department has said.

“He will lead the SRAP (special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan) structure that Richard Holbrooke constructed and will really serve as one of his finest legacies, assisted by two deputies, Dan Feldman and Vikram Singh,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Tuesday at a press briefing.

Ruggiero joined Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a White House meeting Tuesday to “finish the review process on our Afghan and Pakistan policies”, and the results of the review will be announced Thursday, Crowley said.

Holbrooke, Obama administration’s point man in the war-torn Afghan-Pakistani region and broker of peace in Bosnia in the mid 1990s, died Monday after undergoing surgery to repair an aortic tear.

Before becoming Holbrooke’s deputy in July 2010, Ruggiero served as the top US civilian representative for southern Afghanistan. He was appointed acting assistant secretary for political-military affairs in January 2009, the State Department said, adding that he had also served at the Department of Commerce.