Trump's new Iraq-Syria envoy faces an Iran test Syria never posed
Shafaq News- Washington
When Donald Trump named Tom Barrack as special presidential envoy to both Iraq and Syria on Sunday, he was doing more than filling a vacancy; he was, according to analysts, signaling that Washington no longer sees the two countries as separate files.
Patrick Clawson, the Morningstar senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Shafaq News the move was hardly a surprise. "Mr. Barrack has effectively been doing this for quite some time," he said. "He has become quite an important figure for the Trump administration's dealings in that part of the world." The appointment follows the short and troubled tenure of Mark Savaya, whose dismissal, Clawson said, "was widely welcomed both in the State Department and in Iraq."
Barrack, who serves concurrently as US ambassador to Ankara, took on the Syria brief in May 2025. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed Saturday that he would continue in a leading role on both files. Trump announced the formal expansion of his mandate on Sunday via Truth Social, stating Barrack would carry out his new duties "with the full support of the State Department."
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For Dler Awsman, an international relations researcher at the University of Tennessee, the merger of the two briefs reflects something more consequential than a personnel decision. “It marks a shift away from the post-2003 American focus on democracy and development toward a regional security framework aimed at curtailing Iranian influence and realigning both countries with US strategic interests.”
Barrack's Iraq assignment, Awsman told Shafaq News, will be significantly harder than Syria. In Damascus, Turkiye —a US ally— was the dominant external force after Bashar al-Assad's fall. In Baghdad, he inherits deep and entrenched Iranian influence with no equivalent counterweight, and a political landscape fragmented across multiple factions and power centers with no single actor in control.
Clawson identified the central challenge plainly: bringing the Popular Mobilization Forces, a state-affiliated umbrella of predominantly Shiite armed factions, to heel. "The big issue is wanting to see that they do not have a major influence in the new Iraqi government, and that the new Iraqi government controls them, and stops any attacks they might make on US installations or US forces. That's the biggest single issue."
Awsman added that Barrack's America First orientation suggests his focus will fall on strengthening Iraq's central state and security institutions rather than on democracy or federalism, with the longer-term goal of reducing the need for a direct US military footprint in the country.
