Senior US diplomats on Syria abruptly let go amid pro-Damascus policy push, sources say

Some of the most senior US diplomats focused on Syria have been abruptly let go from their posts in recent days, according to five people familiar with the matter, a shake-up that comes as Washington seeks to integrate its Syrian Kurdish allies with the central administration in Damascus.

The diplomats at the Syria Regional Platform (SRP) — the de facto US mission to the country based remotely in Istanbul — all reported to Tom Barrack, the US special envoy for Syria and a longtime adviser and friend of President Donald Trump.

Appointed in May, Barrack has spearheaded a regional policy shift that backs a unified Syrian state under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the Islamist leader who swept to power in a lightning advance late last year.

One of the people speaking to Reuters, a US diplomatic source, says “a handful” of staff at the SRP have been told their tenures are ending as part of a reorganization of the team.

The person says the departures will not affect US policy in Syria, and the decision to remove them is not based on policy differences between the staff and Barrack or the White House.

However, a Western diplomat says the ousting of the US diplomats was in part driven by “a divergence” in views between staffers and Barrack on the issue of the SDF and Sharaa, without elaborating.

The sources, who also include two Western diplomats and two US-based sources, say the moves were sudden, involuntary and came toward the end of last week. Reuters is not able to ascertain the official reason given for the moves.

Barrack, the envoy, has urged the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to move more quickly to ratify a March deal with Sharaa to bring areas they run under state authority, and to integrate the SDF into national security forces.

The State Department does not comment on this issue. A State Department official says it does not comment on “personnel decisions or administrative reorganizations,” adding: “Core staff working on issues pertaining to Syria continue to operate from multiple locations.”

Barrack, who is also the US ambassador to NATO member Turkey, could not be reached directly for comment.

Some SDF leaders — having fought with the US against Islamic State during former president Bashar al-Assad’s rule — have resisted the US pressure to integrate into national security forces, especially given several flare-ups of violence across Syria this year.

The SDF, still engaged in sporadic skirmishes with Syrian and Turkish-backed forces in the country’s northeast, has continued to push for a less centralized government in the post-Assad era — one in which they would retain the autonomy they gained during Syria’s civil war.