The United States has left its ambassadorial post in Baghdad vacant for 18 months , while envoy Tom Barrack's role has expanded across Iraq and Syria amid shifting diplomatic and strategic priorities.
US President Donald Trump announced last Sunday, 31 May, that he had appointed Tom Barrack as Special Presidential Envoy to Iraq and Syria, in addition to his role as Washington's ambassador to Ankara.
The move has renewed attention to US diplomatic representation in Iraq, which a series of chargés have led d’affaires over the past 18 months, with no ambassador appointed.
Since the departure of the previous US ambassador in Baghdad, Alina Romanowski, at the end of December 2024, Washington has not named a successor. The US mission in Baghdad's Green Zone continues to be managed by chargés d'affaires.
At the end of former US President Joe Biden's term, he nominated Tracey Ann Jacobson to serve as US ambassador to Iraq. However, the appointment, which had been scheduled for January 2025, did not materialise following Trump's return to the White House in the same month.
The position has therefore remained vacant for the longest period during which Washington has gone without appointing an ambassador to Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.
During this period, from 2024 to the present, several figures have served as chargés d'affaires leading the US mission in Baghdad. They included Elizabeth Trudeau, followed by Daniel Rubinstein.
In May 2025, the US Embassy in Baghdad announced that Stephen Fagin, the US ambassador to Yemen, would assume the role of chargé d'affaires. In September 2025, the position was assigned to Joshua Harris.
During the same period, three individuals arrived in Baghdad as US envoys. They included Mark Savaia, appointed in October 2025, who remained in the post for only two months, followed by Tom Barrack in February this year.
Adam Boehler, the US Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs, also visited Baghdad in March 2025 to press for the release of Israeli-Russian national Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was released by the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades last September. Tom Barrack, back In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said last Sunday that he had decided to appoint US ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack as Special Presidential Envoy to Syria and Iraq.
The announcement came one day after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared the end of Barack's formal assignment as US Special Envoy to Syria.
Trump said the decision came "as part of strengthening our strategic cooperation with the governments of Syria and Iraq and the continued growth of our relationship with them".
He added that Barrack "will continue to serve as ambassador to Turkey and will work with the full support of the US State Department. We express our deep appreciation for the work Tom Barrack has accomplished and his constant readiness to serve our country."
The State Department's announcement that Barrack's assignment had ended followed the completion of the period during which he had been tasked with engaging Damascus while also serving as ambassador in Ankara. This was understood to be a legal procedure, while confidence in the mission assigned to him was renewed.
On the same day that Rubio's first statement was issued, he wrote again on X that Barrack "will continue to play a vital role, not only as our ambassador to the Republic of Türkiye, but also as we strengthen President Trump's strategic cooperation with the government in Syria and begin our work with the new government in Iraq".
He added that Barrack “is an indispensable member of the President's team, enjoys my full confidence, and works with the full support of the State Department. The American people are well served by his continuing willingness to lead this effort."
In his first comment on the new responsibilities, Barrack wrote on X on Monday: "I am humbly honoured to serve US President Donald Trump, who has achieved what none of his predecessors could achieve in the Middle East. When he speaks, everyone listens, friends and adversaries alike. The course of action is no longer determined by the West and for the West but is now shaped by the region and for the region."
"His personal approach, based on direct communication between leaders, is the only method that this truly complex region has always understood. I am honoured to accept the title of Presidential Envoy under his bold leadership. Under the direction of the President, Secretary of State Marco Rubio – following in the footsteps of Henry Kissinger as the only secretary of state to simultaneously serve as national security adviser – has fundamentally transformed the governing model of US foreign policy in the region," he added.
"The President's philosophy teaches us that a US-centred balance of power works best when allies are encouraged to become more self-reliant and share burdens through interdependence and integration with one another in pursuit of mutual prosperity, while always operating within a framework that preserves American influence, stability, and alignment with the core strategic objectives of the United States," Barrack continued.
Summarising his priorities for the coming period, he said, "Drawing on the traditions of those who have studied the Levant and Anatolia for decades, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey remain the strategic fulcrum upon which any lasting stability in the Middle East must rest. Balancing these three states requires a single, consistent American point of contact and influence that transcends tribal, religious, and sectarian divisions. This vital mission, embraced by President Trump, seeks to help the region guide itself towards shared prosperity by weaving its diverse threads into a cohesive fabric based on order and mutual interest."
In this context, an official at the US State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in Washington told The New Arab in a brief comment that "appointing a permanent US ambassador in Baghdad depends on the steps taken by Iraq's new government, led by Ali al-Zaidi, towards Iran-aligned groups ."
The official said, "This also depends on the Iraqi government's ability to distance those groups from centres of decision-making, as well as economic reforms linked to combating corruption and cooperation with US companies in the fields of energy and investment."
By contrast, Iraqi politicians and diplomats in Baghdad say Washington has recently managed its Iraq policy through several officials in the State Department, the Department of Defence, and the Treasury Department.
The Treasury Department has exerted maximum pressure by imposing sanctions on armed factions and leaders, banks, companies, and businessmen accused of dealing with Iran during 2025 and 2026. No change in Washington's position A senior Iraqi diplomat in Baghdad told The New Arab that Iraq is obliged to deal with whoever the United States sends, regardless of the capacity in which they operate.
He pointed to direct communication between Baghdad and Washington that goes beyond the ambassadorial post, which has remained vacant for 18 months.
The source, who requested anonymity, expected either the appointment of a US ambassador or the confirmation of current chargé d'affaires Joshua Harris, depending on the impression formed in Washington of Ali al-Zaidi's government.
The same source also disclosed what he described as an "expected soon" visit by a US official delegation to Baghdad to meet the Iraqi prime minister.
Regarding the renewal of Barrack's mission, the source ruled out any change in the role he had previously played in Iraq or Syria, despite what he described as a "negative view" among Syrian and Iraqi Kurds towards Barrack's approach of strengthening the authority of Damascus and Baghdad at the expense of the Kurdistan Region and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Ahmed al-Saadi, a former member of Iraq's ruling Coordination Framework alliance, told The New Arab that Tom Barrack's activities in Iraq did not formally carry the status of a special envoy, as they did in Syria, but that he nevertheless exercised that role.
According to al-Saadi, Barrack is therefore expected to continue playing the same role in the coming period, with pressure tools and an open-ended timeframe.
He said US policy in Iraq has focused on three interconnected files: "the armed factions, reorganising the American presence politically and economically, and seeking to isolate the Iraqi financial and banking system from being used to finance Tehran and its proxies."
He added, "Any future ambassador or envoy to Iraq can be considered to carry the same orientations, indeed the same hostility and language of threats that characterised the Trump administration."
Al-Saadi described Ali al-Zaidi's task as "the most difficult, and it will be impossible if he does not receive Shia political support (the Arab Shia forces) regarding the issue of the factions".
Meanwhile, Iraqi political affairs expert Ahmed al-Hamdani told The New Arab that appointing Barrack as envoy to Iraq and Syria "means that the United States has not yet decided to deal with Iraq as a stable state comparable to the Gulf Arab states and Jordan, Iraq's neighbours".
He stressed that retaining Barrack in the role could mean that "completing the diplomatic framework of the US mission in Baghdad through the appointment of a permanent ambassador is still not imminent and that the transition to full diplomatic normalisation and ambassadorial appointments has not yet arrived". He noted that Nizar al-Khairallah has served as Iraq's ambassador to the United States since 2023.
According to al-Hamdani, “Washington is most likely linking the appointment of a permanent ambassador to the new government's ability to deal with Iranian-linked Iraqi militias.”
He argued that "relations between the United States and Iraq are going through their worst phase since the 2003 occupation".
He attributed this primarily to "the growing influence of militias within the governing system and their circumvention of the democratic process through armed power and corrupt influence". Article translated from Arabic by Afrah Almatwari. To read the original, click here .