The US President Barack Obama announced on Wednesday his intention to nominate Richard Verma as Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs at the State Department, the White House said in a statement.

The statement announced Obama's decision to nominate Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry as his Ambassador to Afghanistan and Christopher R Hill as his Ambassador to Iraq. A partner at the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, Verma most recently served as Senior National Security Advisor to the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, a position he held for several years.

In 2008, Verma was appointed to serve on the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.

A veteran of the US Air Force, a former country director for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, he has also worked in the House of Representatives.