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The
Senate backed the nomination by 56-42, as a handful of
Republicans joined Biden's fellow Democrats to vote in Sherman's
favor.
Sherman, 71, a foreign policy veteran, ran into Republican
resistance because she helped negotiate the 2015 international
nuclear agreement with Iran, which was fiercely opposed by
Republicans as well as some Democrats.
Former Republican President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact
in 2018. The agreement has unraveled as Iran breached its limits
on nuclear enrichment and Trump re-imposed sanctions.
But the Biden administration has sought to re-engage and Iran
and world powers last week held what they described as
"constructive" talks to salvage the accord.
The issue was complicated when Iran said on Tuesday it will
start enriching uranium to 60% purity, a move bringing the
fissile material closer to levels suitable for a bomb, after
accusing Israel of sabotaging a nuclear installation.
Israel's government opposed the nuclear pact.
Sherman had promised a new approach on Iran at her March
confirmation hearing, noting that the world has changed since
the pact was implemented in 2016.
Dealings with Iran must "be decided on the merits of where we
are today, not nostalgia for what might have been," Sherman
said.
Sherman was State Department counselor from 1997 to 2001, when
she was also policy coordinator on North Korea. From 1993 to
1996 she served as assistant secretary of state for legislative
affairs.
(Reporting by Patricia ZengerleEditing by Chris Reese and Grant
McCool)
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