Breaking Rank, U.S. Ambassador in Middle East Says News From Home 'Increasingly Difficult'

Qatar meeting
Qatar Minister of State for Defense Affairs Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah (R) meets with US Defence Secretary James Mattis (C) and US ambassador to Qatar Dana Shell Smith (L) at his residence in Doha on... Jonathan Ernst/AFP/Getty

In a particularly undiplomatic step for a foreign envoy, the U.S. ambassador to Qatar on Wednesday appeared to criticize President Donald Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey.

Dana Shell Smith, the American representative to the tiny, oil-rich Gulf state, used Twitter to express her discontent at the billionaire's decisions at home.

The swipe came just hours after the president had a termination letter delivered to FBI headquarters in Maryland, which employees had to read to Comey over the phone as he was at an event in Los Angeles.

"Increasingly difficult to wake up overseas to news from home, knowing I will spend today explaining our democracy and institutions," Shell Smith tweeted. It received more than 2,000 retweets and provoked a mixed reaction, with some users supporting her choice of words and others calling for her to quit her job.

Read more: After Comey firing, Trump's hour of reckoning

Trump's predecessor President Barack Obama appointed Shell Smith to the position in 2014. While she did not lay bare her political allegiances in her tweets, she criticized the widening gap between Republicans and Democrats at home and how it has an impact on the dealings of the diplomatic service abroad.

The White House is yet to comment on Shell Smith's public comments on the domestic political situation.

Shell Smith, a speaker of five languages with previous posts in Taiwan, Jordan, Egypt, Israel and Gaza, followed up the tweet on Wednesday, in an apparent defense of her earlier tweet even though it remains on her page.

She wrote: "Diplomats explain and defend our political system. Can be tough when partisan acrimony so high, but there is still no greater country."

Qatar represents a key economic and strategic ally for Washington in the Middle East. The country hosts the Al Udeid air base—the largest the U.S. possesses in the region—and 10,000 American troops. This was highlighted by the visit of U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to Doha to meet with the current emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, last month.

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