U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria and Iraq Tom Barrack said on Tuesday that Iran is “not an evil regime,” while describing its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as an adversary.
Discussing Iran’s Shi’ite theocracy at the Global Security Forum in Doha, Qatar, Barrack said: “It’s not an evil regime. That has nothing to do with it. That’s a religious content and practice that we all respect.” He added that the IRGC “has become an adversary” and that its relationship with Israel “has been a problem.”
Barrack also made sweeping assertions about antisemitism while recalling his upbringing in a Lebanese immigrant family in a Jewish neighborhood. “There was no antisemitism in the U.S. It just didn’t exist,” he said. “Very little antisemitism even in the region.” He added: “Zionism and ’48 became another issue.”
Turning to Turkey, Barrack warned that a communications breakdown during an Israeli air operation at a base about 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the Turkish border could have triggered a confrontation. Neither Ankara nor Washington had been informed of the approaching Israeli jets, he said. “Turkey could have very quickly sent its jets and all of a sudden we’re in another situation.”
Israel struck the Abu al-Duhur Airbase in northwestern Syria on Aug. 18, citing intelligence that Turkey planned to station troops, radar and an air defense system there, which Ankara denied. In an Aug. 21 interview, Barrack called the strike an “unnecessary escalation.” Defense Minister Israel Katz rejected his criticism as “full of inaccuracies” and said Israel had shared intelligence with Washington before the attack, disputing Barrack’s assertion that the United States had not been informed.
Asked whether Washington should press Israel to halt its military operations in Syria, Barrack said, “It’s time to stop it.” However, he expressed uncertainty about whether the U.S. should intervene to bring those operations to a halt.
He also defended Israel’s right to be cautious about Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, saying: “They were entitled to wait and see.”
Barrack has previously drawn scrutiny for his remarks on Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and on Hezbollah.
Barrack on Aug. 23 walked back comments describing Israel’s control of the Golan Heights as an occupation, saying he had been referring to the territory’s historical status.
“United States policy on the Golan was set by President Trump in 2019 and is unchanged,” Barrack said in a statement to The Associated Press. He said his remarks were “not an endorsement of the United Nations’ position” on the territory, which Israel captured during the 1967 Six-Day War and extended sovereignty over in 1981.
Barrack had said on Aug. 21 that Israel “still occupies” the Golan Heights, prompting Katz to note he was contradicting the U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty there.
Barrack said on July 6 in Beirut that Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy, Hezbollah, “needs to see that there’s a future for them.”
Speaking to reporters, he said after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun that “Hezbollah is a political party. It also has a militant aspect to it. Hezbollah needs to see that there’s a future for them, that the road is not harnessed solely against them, and that there’s an intersection of peace and prosperity for them also,” quoting Agence France-Presse.
Hezbollah is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department.
A State Department official told JNS on July 7 that “our position has not changed—[Hezbollah] is a designated terrorist organization, and we do not distinguish between its political or armed wings.”
