Rice sometimes backed Powell, but she often allowed the hawks to have enormous influence over key diplomatic issues. (AFP)

WASHINGTON, November 16 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – US President George W. Bush tapped Tuesday, November 16, national security advisor Condoleezza Rice to replace quitting Secretary of State Colin Powell, who battled with administration hawks over the Iraq  war and other sticky foreign policy issues.

Bush’s decision is seen as a serious twist towards cementing the hardliners’ grip on the US administration for the coming four years, according to a major US daily.

Powell was the most senior of four members of Bush's cabinet to quit Monday.

Bush, who won reelection this month, accepted the resignation of the former top general who directed the 1991 war against Iraq but was only a lukewarm supporter of last year's invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

Two senior administration officials said the president would name his national security adviser, Rice, to replace Powell. They said the announcement would come later Tuesday, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Bush plans to turn to deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley to replace Rice, who is one of the president's closest advisers and confidants, said the officials, who spoke to AFP, on condition of anonymity.

Rice, who turned 50 Sunday, November 14, has been tipped for months as a leading contender to succeed Powell. She is a fluent Russian speaker and an expert on arms control.

Hadley, who advised Bush on foreign policy during the 2000 election campaign and took office in January 2001, was also the favorite to take over as national security adviser.

Powell indicated that he has been in longstanding discussions with the president about leaving.

“As we have discussed in recent months, I believe that now that the election is over, the time has come for me to step down as Secretary of State and return to private life,” Powell, 67, said in a letter to Bush.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, 59, was also likely to step down, officials said.

The White House also announced the departure of Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Education Secretary Rod Paige. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans quit last week.

Powell’s departure, however, has created the greatest stir, depriving the administration of a highly regarded voice on the international scene at a time when Bush hoped to mend fences after the Iraq war and revive Middle East peace talks.

Bush described Powell as “a soldier, a diplomat, a civic leader, a statesman and a great patriot,” and praised his work over the past four years.

Powell “is one of the great public servants of our time,” Bush said in a statement.

Hardliners Cement Control

Powell has reportedly lost hope in winning Bush over away from the hawks. (AFP)

According to Reuters, Powell's willingness to negotiate with North Korea and to acquiesce in European talks with Iran has met resistance from administration hard-liners.

Other senior State Department officials, such as planning director Mitchel Reiss and Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, Powell's point man in negotiations with North Korea, were also expected to leave, sources told Reuters.

The departure of the moderates could deepen the right-wing influence on the president, it added.

The Washington Post, however, was more blunt in explaining the repercussions of  Bush’s decision on US foreign policy.

“By accepting Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's resignation, President Bush appears to have taken a decisive turn in his approach to foreign policy,” the daily said in front page article entitled, “Moves Cement Hard-Line Stance On Foreign Policy”.

“Powell's departure -- and Bush's intention to name his confidante, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, as Powell's replacement -- would mark the triumph of a hard-edged approach to diplomacy espoused by Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

“Powell's brand of moderate realism was often overridden in the administration's councils of power, but Powell’s presence ensured that the president heard divergent views on how to proceed on key foreign policy issues.

“But, with Powell out of the picture, the long-running struggle over key foreign policy issues is likely to be less intense. Powell has pressed for working with the Europeans on ending Iran's nuclear program, pursuing diplomatic talks with North Korea over its nuclear ambitions and taking a tougher approach with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

“Now, the policy toward Iran and North Korea may turn decidedly sharper, with a bigger push for sanctions rather than diplomacy. On Middle East peace, the burden for progress will remain largely with the Palestinians.”

The daily further added that elevating Rice means that Bush is “comfortable with the direction of the past four years and sees little need to dramatically shift course.”

“My impression is that the president broadly believes his direction is correct,” former House speaker Newt Gingrich, told the Post.

“Rice sometimes backed Powell in his confrontations with Cheney and Rumsfeld, but more often than not she allowed the vice president and the defense secretary to have enormous influence over key diplomatic issues.

“More to the point, she is deeply familiar with the president's thinking on foreign policy -- and can be expected to ride herd on a State Department bureaucracy that some conservatives have viewed as openly hostile to the president's policies. The departures of Powell and his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, could trigger a wholesale reshuffling of top State Department officials, the paper said.

“Condi (Rice) knows what the president wants to accomplish and agrees with it,” Gary Schmitt, director of the Project for the New American Century, a think tank that frequently reflects the views of hard-liners in the administration, told the daily.

“One of Powell's weaknesses is that even when he signed on to the president's policy, he was not effective in managing the building to follow the policy as well.”

Dove

Bush is satisfied with the neo-conservatives of his administration, according to the Washington Post. (AFP)

For the rest of the world, Powell was considered a sympathetic ear in an administration that often appeared tone-deaf to other nations’ concerns, said the Post.

There will be “teeth-gnashing” over Powell's departure by many foreign officials, Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger, national security adviser in President Bill Clinton's second term, told the daily.

“Colin was the side door they could get into when they could not get through the front door.”

“The president ultimately set the course,” Berger added. “Colin has had a hard hand to play over the last several years in selling policies not popular to allies.”

As praise poured in from around the world for Powell, he said he always planned to serve for just one term, according to Reuters.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said, however, that Powell's departure may not herald harsher US foreign policy stances.

“Everything that Secretary Powell has done, he has done with the full authority of the president,” he said, according to Reuters.