WASHINGTON — The White House’s pick to become the State Department’s top diplomat on the Middle East committed on Thursday to implementing Donald Trump's decision to lift sanctions on Syria, while telling Senate lawmakers that the United States faces a historic window of opportunity to box Iranian influence out of the Levant region. 

Joel Rayburn, Trump’s nominee to be the next assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, argued that Israel’s recent military decimation of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria have presented a “golden opportunity” for both countries to chart new futures unencumbered by Iranian influence.

“It's a time of rapid change in the Middle East, presenting the United States with opportunities of historic proportion,” he told members of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee. 

“We also have the opportunity to ensure that the Iranian regime can no longer use Lebanon and Syria as platforms for destabilizing the region, thereby giving those beleaguered countries a chance for a more promising future,” he said in opening remarks.