Former ambassador to Cyprus named State Department spokesman

RICHARD A. Boucher, US ambassador to Cyprus 1993-96, has been appointed as spokesman for the US State Department headed by Madeline Albright.

It will be Boucher’s second innings in the job, which he held from 1989 to 1993, but he is confident that the challenges are still fresh.

"Between 1989 and 1993 there was hunger for news of the world. Now the issues are a little more complicated and making the connections to people’s lives requires more of an activist approach", he said.

Boucher takes over from James P. Rubin, who was previously Albright’s adviser and spokesman at the United Nations.

Boucher’s current title is ‘spokesman’ whereas Rubin’s was assistant secretary for public affairs. In order to earn the same rank, Boucher will need to be nominated by the President and have it ratified by the Senate.

He joined the US Foreign Service in 1977. Among his previous posts were jobs as State Department co-ordinator for the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum and US consul general in Hong Kong during the British handover of power to Beijing.

His experience spans 23 years and covers issues as wide as the fall of the Berlin wall and the Gulf War.

It was while he was ambassador in Cyprus that he met Albright for the first time, then US ambassador to the UN. He also worked alongside her in Hong Kong. He was her choice when Rubin made clear his intention to leave.

Albright will be the fourth secretary of state that he has worked for. He has previously been department spokesman under Lawrence S. Eagleburger and Warren M. Christopher.

His track record as spokesman has been impressive. Current White House spokesman Mike McCurry learnt how to give press briefings by studying how Boucher handled the job as State Department spokesman first time round.

Rubin resigned in order to spend more time with his wife and newborn son.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.