Changes at US National Security Council as Bolton shuffles Middle East staff
Three months into the job, US National Security Adviser John Bolton is making changes at the National Security Council as key officials who work on the Middle East are expected to leave.
The National has learnt that both the senior director for Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon at the White House National Security Council, Joel Rayburn, and senior Middle East adviser Mike Bell are leaving imminently.
Mr Rayburn is expected to move to the State Department, where he will be nominated for a high-level position dealing with the Middle East, sources said.
It is unclear if Mr Bell will stay in government. Among those who have left is director for Lebanon, James Sindle.
These staff remained from the tenure of former national security adviser Gen HR McMaster, who left in March and will be joining the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University as a visiting fellow in September.
“We don’t comment on personnel issues,” a spokesman at the National Security Council told The National.
Staff changes have routinely taken place at the NSC throughout administrations, especially for non-political appointees.
Mr Bolton also appointed Mira Ricardel as his deputy and Fred Feitz as his chief of staff in April.
At the State Department, Secretary Mike Pompeo is
Mr Bolton’s changes herald latest round of musical chairs for US officials in working across the Middle East
hoping to speed up nominations in key posts related to the Middle East.
David Schenker is awaiting a Senate confirmation vote to be the next Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, replacing David Satterfield.
Mr Satterfield will be nominated as the next US ambassador to Ankara, according to Turkish media reports.
However, Phillip Kosnett, the US charge d’affaires in Turkey, said this week that although “there had been lots of rumours, nothing is official until the White House makes an announcement”.
Paula Dobriansky, a former George W Bush official, was in April expected to be nominated as undersecretary of state for political affairs. No nomination has been made official.
There has also been no replacement announced for United States special envoy for Syria, Michael Ratney, who left the position in April.