![\"US](\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/1823\/production\/_92797160_036681734.jpg\")
<\/p>\nUS President-elect Donald Trump has named Gen James Mattis, a former marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, as his defence secretary.<\/p>\n
“He’s our best,” Mr Trump said, as he announced his pick in a speech in Ohio.<\/p>\n
Gen Mattis, who is known as “Mad Dog”, was an outspoken critic of the Obama administration’s Middle East policy, particularly on Iran.<\/p>\n
He has referred to Iran as “the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East”.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump made the announcement in Cincinnati at the start of a “USA Thank You Tour 2016” for his supporters.<\/p>\n
“We are going to appoint ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis as our secretary of defence,” he told the crowd.<\/p>\n
“They say he’s the closest thing to General George Patton [World War Two commander] that we have.”<\/p>\n
Mr Trump has previously described Gen Mattis, 66, as “a true general’s general”.<\/p>\n
The retired Marine Corps officer led an assault battalion during the first Gulf war in 1991 and commanded a task force into southern Afghanistan in 2001.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He also took part in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and played a key role a year later in the Battle of Fallujah.<\/p>\n
Gen Mattis retired in 2013 after serving as the commander of the US Central Command.<\/p>\n
Correspondents say his nomination will be popular among US forces.<\/p>\n
However, a legal hurdle must be overcome before he can be appointed.<\/p>\n
Under US law, a retired officer must be out of uniform for at least seven years before he or she can serve as defence secretary.<\/p>\n
Republican-controlled Congress will have to approve legislation bypassing the requirement so he can take up the role.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President-elect Donald Trump has named Gen James Mattis, a former marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, as his defence secretary. “He’s our best,” Mr Trump said, as he announced his pick in a speech in Ohio. Gen Mattis, who is known as “Mad Dog”, was an outspoken critic of the Obama administration’s Middle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":273563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[14105,109,2057,14106],"class_list":["post-273562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-general-mattis","tag-trump","tag-trump-elections","tag-trump-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=273562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=273562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=273562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=273562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}