Savaya responds to reports of his exclusion as US envoy to Iraq
Savaya responds to reports of his exclusion as US envoy to Iraq
2026/02/01
US envoy to Iraq Mark Savaya denied reports that he had been removed from his post.
This comes after Reuters quoted several sources as saying that he had been removed from the post, and that Tom Barrack would take over US affairs in Iraq in his place.
Savaya said: “Those reports are incorrect. I haven’t even started my job yet, so how can I be removed?”
Reuters reported, citing informed sources, that Mark Savaya, who was appointed by US President Donald Trump as special envoy to Iraq in October, no longer holds that position.
Savaya, an Iraqi-American Christian businessman, was among a group of Arab Americans appointed to senior positions by Trump, after the latter campaigned intensively during the 2024 presidential election to win the votes of Arabs and Muslims in Detroit and across the country.
According to Reuters, citing the source and a senior Iraqi official, it is believed that the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, who visited Erbil earlier this week to meet with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, will take over the Iraq portfolio at the State Department.
alforatnews.iq
