Barrack made the assessment in an astonishing and candid interview with online personality Mario Nawfal, which went online late on Thursday. It was just one of many insights that Barrack, who is at the centre of US diplomacy in the region, shared.
In addition, he said that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa will not sign the Abraham Accords with Israel and alluded to deeply strained ties between Egypt and Israel, which he said are no longer “talking to each other or cooperating”.
Barrack is the US ambassador to Turkey but has become Trump’s envoy to the wider Eastern Mediterranean and the Caucasus.
A billionaire real estate investor, Barrack, like his boss at the White House, has chaffed at the traditional US foreign policy establishment - including its preference for maintaining quiet ties with American establishment media. Instead, he has given shoot-from-the-hip style interviews.
On Thursday, he called himself an “events-driven mercenary”.
“What’s going on in Gaza makes the rest of the Arab world totally freaked out,” Barrack said.
“In Israel’s mind, these lines that were created by Sykes-Picot are meaningless. They will go where they want, when they want, and do what they want to protect the Israelis and their borders,” Barrack said.
The Sykes-Picot agreement was a secret agreement between Britain and France struck in 1916 during WWI that divided the Ottoman Empire’s territories in the Levant, fashioning the modern states of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Mandatory Palestine, the wide swath of land that was later partitioned to create Israel.
“Does Israel have the capacity or the desire to really take over Lebanon? Absolutely. Why didn’t they do it? They have the capacity to do the same thing in Syria,” he said.
“The idea that Israel is really interested in keeping everybody off balance so that they can have more control and command, in my opinion, just as an individual, is ludicrous,” he said.
Israel says it wants to see Hezbollah disarmed before it withdraws from Lebanese territory and ends its attacks. Analysts and regional diplomats tell Middle East Eye that Hezbollah is unlikely to give up its arms under Israeli fire.
The US has been supporting the non-sectarian LAF as a counterweight to Hezbollah. But in the interview, Barrack ruled out the LAF forcibly disarming Hezbollah.
Israel invaded a swath of southwestern Syria after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government in late 2024. This week, Israel said it would continue to occupy Syria’s Mount Hermon. It also launched air strikes and a ground raid near Damascus.
middleeasteye.net