U.S. envoy Tom Barrack says America will stay in Middle East but no longer seek to control region

EASTORA REPORT | U.S. Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy Tom Barrack said Tuesday that Washington is not leaving the Middle East but is moving away from trying to control the region, arguing that decades of intervention and regime change have repeatedly failed.

Speaking at the Global Security Forum in Doha, Barrack said the U.S. should help regional countries manage their own security rather than attempt to “own” or control outcomes. “America’s not leaving,” he said. “It’s just not trying to control. Controlling hasn’t done very well.”

Barrack said Washington had been involved in 23 regime changes in the region and questioned the record of such interventions. “Every time we change the person or the regime, it seems to have been a mistake,” he said. He also argued that past instability had sometimes served Western interests by allowing greater influence over fossil fuels, but said that model no longer worked.

On Türkiye and Israel, Barrack said neither side was likely to deliberately seek a military confrontation, describing much of their hostile rhetoric as politics. But he warned of an unintended clash, citing a recent Israeli operation near an area of Turkish military interest in Syria and saying an incident involving Turkish aircraft could rapidly produce a wider confrontation.

Addressing Iran, Barrack distinguished between Iran’s political-religious system and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which he described as an adversary whose confrontation with Israel had become a problem. He argued that simply seeking to eliminate every sanctioned or designated adversary was not a viable strategy and said opponents needed a potential path toward economic prosperity.

Barrack also said President Donald Trump would provide Saudi Arabia with the logistical backing it needed in its conflict with Yemen’s Houthis, while rejecting the prospect of another U.S. ground war. “America getting involved in a ground, kinetic battle somewhere else seems fruitless,” he said.