Some of the most senior US diplomats focused on Syria and based in İstanbul have been abruptly removed from their posts in recent days, according to five people familiar with the matter, in a shake-up that comes as Washington seeks to bring its Kurdish allies under the authority of Damascus, Reuters reported.
The diplomats worked at the Syria Regional Platform (SRP), the de facto US mission to Syria that has operated remotely from İstanbul since Washington closed its embassy in Damascus in 2012. They reported to Tom Barrack, the US special envoy for Syria and ambassador to Turkey, and a longtime adviser and friend of President Donald Trump.
Appointed in May, Barrack has pushed a regional policy shift backing a unified Syrian state under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the Islamist leader who seized power in a rapid offensive late last year.
A US diplomatic source told Reuters that “a handful” of SRP staff were told their tours were ending as part of a team reorganization. The source said the departures were not due to policy disagreements and would not affect US strategy in Syria. But two Western diplomats and two US-based sources said the moves were sudden, involuntary and carried out late last week. The official reasons were unclear.
A US State Department spokesperson declined to comment on “personnel decisions or administrative reorganizations” but said core staff working on Syria issues continues to operate from multiple locations. Barrack could not be reached directly for comment.
Diplomatic sources said the removals may be tied to disagreements over US pressure on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to integrate into state structures under al-Sharaa. Barrack has urged the Kurdish-led, US-backed group to ratify a March deal that would fold its forces into national security units.
Some SDF leaders, who fought alongside the US against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant during the rule of former President Bashar Assad, have resisted ceding autonomy gained during Syria’s civil war. Sporadic clashes this year between the SDF and Syrian or Turkish-backed forces in the northeast have led to tensions.
On Tuesday Barrack was in Damascus for the signing of a government plan aimed at resolving a standoff with the Druze minority in the south. He later wrote on X that the deal would ensure “equal rights and shared obligations for all.”
The SRP, headquartered at the US Consulate General in İstanbul with offices elsewhere in the region, has long functioned as Washington’s outpost for Syria policy.