Speaking at the Global Security Forum in Doha, US Ambassador to Turkiye and Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said the US was reassessing its role after years of attempts to reshape governments across the region.
“The US no longer wants to own,” Barrack said. “The bargain is not to control, but to not leave. We’re not leaving.”
Barrack acknowledged that regional countries were increasingly recognising the limits of US involvement. “Everybody is saying: OK, I can’t rely on America to solve all my problems,” he said.
Barrack questioned the effectiveness of previous interventions, saying that the US had been involved in 23 regime changes across the wider Middle East. “Every time we try and intervene, change the person or the regime, it seems to have been a mistake,” he said.
His remarks come as Washington and Tehran try to negotiate an end to the US-Israeli war on Iran that has destabilised the region and disrupted global energy supplies.
Political analyst Luciano Zaccara described Barrack as probably “the most realistic of Trump’s allies” in his assessment of US involvement in the Middle East. He told Al Jazeera that Barrack had effectively acknowledged that regime change, one of Trump’s stated objectives in the war on Iran, was unlikely to succeed. Zaccara said Barrack’s reference to regime changes in the Middle East was an acknowledgement “that what the US has been doing in the region has not been working, regardless of which administration it was”.
According to Zaccara, Barrack had stopped just short of suggesting that Trump needed to retreat from “the maximalist demands” he had made of Iran.
The diplomatic efforts come as Iran’s seven-day proposal to end the war remains on the table, with the US yet to give its response. The plan envisages reopening the Strait of Hormuz and resuming nuclear negotiations in exchange for US concessions, including lifting the naval blockade on Iranian ports and easing economic sanctions on Tehran.
Analyst Negar Mortazavi said the diplomatic door remained open, but negotiations were stalled over the terms and sequencing of an agreement. “Tehran wants to end the war, but it is not prepared to surrender under military or economic pressure,” she told Al Jazeera on the sidelines of the forum.
The Strait of Hormuz remains a major flashpoint, with attacks on commercial shipping raising concerns over global energy supplies. Before the US-Israeli war on Iran, one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies transited through the strait.
Mortazavi said the escalation was part of Tehran’s strategy to maintain leverage against Washington despite its military disadvantages. “Iran’s leverage has diminished but has not disappeared,” she said. “Moving tankers is not the same as restoring safe, predictable and normal maritime traffic.”
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed al-Ansari, speaking separately at the forum, said mediators were continuing to exchange messages between the warring parties, with regional partners involved. “The fact that we’re not hearing about it is a good sign that we’re doing our job properly,” he said.
Qatar also reaffirmed its support for Saudi Arabia in the fighting against Yemen’s Houthi armed group, with al-Ansari saying Doha backed Riyadh in “defending their sovereignty against this attack”. Fighting intensified in September after the Houthis seized areas along Yemen’s Red Sea coast. The Houthis have retaliated with missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and military installations.