Intel: Biden to pick Brett McGurk for top White House Middle East role
Picking the former defeat-ISIS envoy to oversee US Middle East policy sends a strong signal to Turkey.
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to choose Brett McGurk, the former envoy to the US-led international coalition to defeat the Islamic State (IS), for a White House role managing US policy in the Middle East and North Africa.
McGurk’s selection as National Security Council's coordinator for Middle East and North Africa was first reported by The New York Times and CNN and confirmed to Al-Monitor by a former US official familiar with the decision.
Why it Matters: McGurk previously oversaw the formation of the US-led, multinational military coalition to destroy IS in Iraq and Syria. He was appointed to that position in 2015 by then-President Barack Obama and stayed on until moving up his resignation following President Donald Trump’s snap order to withdraw US forces from Syria in December 2018.
His expected appointment will likely send a strong signal to Turkey and could complicate the Biden administration's efforts to reset relations with the NATO ally.
