The appointment of John Rakolta as the next US ambassador to the UAE is one step away from confirmation following majority approval by the Senate foreign relations committee on Thursday. The committee voted 15-7 to pass Mr Rakolta’s nomination and thereby move it to the Senate, which is expected to give the final nod of approval in the next two weeks. Mr Rakolta was nominated for the position in March last year but the appointment process was delayed by partisan bickering between the Trump administration and Democrats in Congress. Mr Rakolta and Kelly Craft, the nominee for Us envoy to the UN, were the only ambassadorial candidates approved on Thursday. Others still awaiting the Senate committee's nod include Jonathan Cohen as US ambassador to Egypt. Unlike many of his predecessors, Mr Rakolta, 71, comes from a business background. A son of Romanian immigrants who was born and raised in Detroit, he served as chairman and chief executive of the the 100-year-old construction company Walbridge Aldinger since 1980. In his testimony to Congress, he took credit for turning “a $40 million regional company into a $1.6 billion international enterprise of nearly 2,000 employees”. In his testimony in June, he described the US-UAE relationship as “critical to our national security interests" and "a moderating and stabilising force in one of the world’s most volatile regions”. Supporting a political solution in Yemen and countering Iranian threats in the Arabian Gulf would be his priorities as ambassador to the UAE, Mr Rakolta said. “The President has been clear Iran is responsible for the May 12 attacks on four commercial vessels off the coast of Fujairah, and the June 13 attacks on two vessels in the Gulf of Oman,” he told Congress. “The Iranian regime poses a major threat to freedom of navigation and maritime security. I will work to support the administration’s efforts to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.” Mr Rakolta is also expected to focus on the growing US-UAE bilateral trade that reached $24.6 billion in 2018. As the <em>The National</em> reported after his nomination last year, he is well connected within the Republican Party establishment, with donations from his family to the Trump Victory Fund reaching more than $260,000, and has served as finance chairman for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012. Marcelle Wahba, president emeritus of the Arab Gulf State Institute in Washington and a former US ambassador to the UAE, told <em>The National</em> that the role was critical for the US-UAE relations. "The US-UAE bilateral relationship is, and has been, very strong for decades. Since 9/11 I believe it is the most important relationship for the US in the Gulf region, encompassing robust commercial trade, security and intelligence ties," Ms Wahba said. “Having an ambassador in place, after nearly a two-year hiatus, is very important at any time, but more so today given current tensions in the region,” she added.