However, the ambassador to Panama had tendered his resignation by Thursday morning, before the meeting occurred, a State Department official tells NPR's Michele Kelemen.
Feeley, a career diplomat, informed the White House, the State Department and the Panamanian government "of his decision to retire for personal reasons, as of March 9 of this year," the State Department says.
Steve Goldstein, the undersecretary for diplomacy, told Michele that all ambassadors and other diplomats have the right to be in the job they chose and that it is up to them if they leave for moral reasons, or any other reason.
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