The move will also impact the US envoy to India, Rich Verma.
President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition staff has issued a blanket mandate requiring politically appointed ambassadors installed by President Barack Obama to leave their overseas posts by Inauguration day, The New York Times reports.
“I will be departing on January 20th,†Ambassador Mark Gilbert confirmed the report in a Twitter message to Reuters.
The mandate was issued “without exceptions†through an order sent in a state department cable on December 23, Gilbert said.
The move will also impact the US envoy to India, Rich Verma, the first Indian American to be named envoy to India, who was picked by Barack Obama for the job in 2014 and arrived in India days before the US president’s visit the following year.
Earlier, reports had suggested that Verma –who traces his roots to Jalandhar and the Pakistani part of Punjab, intended to put in his papers after Donald Trump won the presidential election.
Verma, who had worked with Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state, made remarks about Trump’s campaign and said that the “impassioned†campaign divided the country.
Traditionally, Republican and Democratic administrations used to grant extensions to a few envoys, particularly those with school-age children, to remain in place for weeks or months. But this time Donald Trump has taken a hard line against leaving any of President Obama’s political appointees in place as he prepares to take office on January 20, the news paper says.
The New York Times quotes some diplomats who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter. Many of them are scrambling to secure living arrangements and acquire visas allowing them to remain in their countries so their children can remain in school.