Congressman calls for investigation into Brett McGurk's leadership on Middle East

Republican Joe Wilson accuses former US official of emboldening Iran and making 'America less safe'

Brett McGurk is accused of emboldening Iran and its proxies. AP

A leading US Congressman has requested an official investigation into what he called former White House adviser Brett McGurk's “failed” Middle East policies.

Joe Wilson, the Republican former chairman of the Middle East House subcommittee, said Mr McGurk had “emboldened Iran and its proxies and made America less safe”.

In a letter publicly released on Friday, Mr Wilson lobbied new foreign affairs committee chairman Brian Mast to subpoena Mr McGurk to testify before Congress and launch a formal investigation into his regional track record.

“The fact that someone is so consistently wrong, in ways that endangered US national security, continued to shape policy among different administrations exposes a major problem in the foreign establishment,” the letter reads.

Mr McGurk has been involved in US Middle East policy for decades across several administrations, beginning with former president George W Bush's occupation of Iraq.

Under former president Barack Obama, he led US efforts to assist the global anti-ISIS coalition, but resigned during President Donald Trump's first term in office over the withdrawal of US troops from the mission in north-west Syria.

Most recently, under Joe Biden, Mr McGurk promoted a regional policy that went “back to basics” and away from the “maximalist” posture laid out in the Bush and Obama administrations during the Iraq war and the Arab uprisings, respectively.

His efforts put him in a long-running camp of US officials who have tried, and largely failed, to disengage from the region.

Mr Wilson has been among the most vocal members of US Congress on the Syria file, advocating against the ousted regime of Bashar Al Assad, as well as Iran. He is also known among his colleagues on Capitol Hill to refer to the Russian President solely as “war criminal Putin”.

In his letter to Mr Mast, he accuses Mr McGurk of leading in US efforts at “normalisation” with the Assad regime, which never officially occurred – despite a softening posture as Washington's Arab partners increasingly brought Syria back into the fold.

After the Syrian opposition's shock victory against the regime late last year, Mr Wilson predicted the second Trump administration would stiffen Washington's anti-Iran posture and “accelerate” normalisation efforts with the new government in Damascus.

But the new Trump administration has largely promised a policy of US retreat on the world stage and an end to foreign wars.

Speaking exclusively to The National in January, Mr Wilson said the Trump administration would continue “in the tradition of the Abraham Accords” on Syria, including working with Saudi Arabia. Washington has tried for years to help establish relations between Riyadh and Israel through the accords.

His fellow Republicans are working in the new Trump-led government to establish “a level of stability for the mutual benefit of the people of Syria and Saudi Arabia, and then their neighbours”.