U.S. President Donald Trump says he has chosen Robert O'Brien to replace John Bolton as White House national security adviser.
“I have worked long & hard with Robert. He will do a great job!” Trump said in a tweet on September 18 in announcing the appointment.
O'Brien is currently a presidential envoy for hostage affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
In April when Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was visiting New York he admitted receiving a letter from O’Brien about foreign nationals detained in Iran. It is not clear if the letter contained any offer of a prisoner swap, but Zarif said at the time it was a “unilateral” communication simply asking for prisoner release by Iran.
Trump has been searching for a new national security adviser since he fired Bolton on September 10 saying they "disagreed strongly" on many issues.
Bolton, who was Trump’s third national security adviser since he was inaugurated in January 2017, has said that he offered to resign the evening before the president sacked him.