Steve Clemons posted yesterday at the Cafe on Dennis Ross's odd new appointment at State: as Hillary Clinton's Special Advisor for the Gulf and Southwest Asia. Not as the plenipotentiary envoy to Iran he'd been angling for.

In fact, as I noted in a comment, the announcement of his posting omitted any mention of what precise countries fall into his sphere of activity. Spencer Ackerman noticed the same thing.

It took a day of prodding, but the State Department finally spelled it out:

http://washingtonindependent.com/31472/state-department-nobly-defines-southwest-asia

Now, there are several ways to define Southwest Asia. But this is just about the narrowest conceivable list. No Cyprus, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan or (on the eastern end) Afghanistan. None of the other Stans either. No Israel, Occupied Territories or Egypt. (The latter would only have been included if the title had been Special Advisor for the Middle East.).

Ross does get to advise Clinton on Iran, Iraq and the states of the Arabian peninsula. What she does with that advice is another story. It's reasonable to suspect Ross's nomination met a certain amount of resistance, either within the State Department or at the White House.