White House withdraws nominee for top Middle East post: Source

WASHINGTON

The White House has withdrawn the nomination of Joel Rayburn to serve as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, a source familiar with the matter told Anadolu on Monday.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Rayburn’s nomination was withdrawn because he did not have the support of enough lawmakers. The administration is expected to nominate an alternative candidate for the position.

Rayburn, a former US Army officer, served as US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Syria from 2018 to 2021 and concurrently as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Levant Affairs until November 2020.

He faced Senate resistance over his alleged role in obscuring US troop levels in Syria during his tenure.

Nominated by Trump in February to lead the State Department’s Middle East bureau, Rayburn’s confirmation had stalled for months before advancing out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week with a 15–7 vote.

Republican Senator Rand Paul and committee Democrats reportedly raised concerns about his record in Syria, prompting the panel to advance his nomination without recommending him to the full Senate.

"We voted him last week out with no recommendation," Paul told Axios, which first reported the story.

Rayburn denied during his hearing in May that he had any role in misleading US officials about troop levels in Syria.

During the hearing, Paul pressed Rayburn about his ties to James Jeffrey, who served as the US special representative for Syria engagement from 2018 to 2020. Paul cited Jeffrey’s remarks in an interview in November 2020 about “playing shell games” to obscure troop numbers in Syria from Trump.

“Were you aware of that at the time?” Paul said.

Rayburn called it “a very unfortunate comment by Ambassador Jeffrey,” adding: “We had no role in reporting troop numbers to the president.”

In December 2018, Trump announced plans to withdraw all 2,000 US troops from Syria, declaring ISIS (Daesh) defeated. However, he later reversed course amid a strong backlash from Congress, the Pentagon and members of his own national security bureaucracy.

The Pentagon announced in April that it would consolidate US forces in Syria under Operation Inherent Resolve and reduce troop numbers to below 1,000 in the coming months.

In May, Trump ordered the lifting of most US sanctions on Syria after meeting Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, though the 2019 Caesar Act authorizing such measures remains in force.

*Michael Hernandez contributed this story.