⚡️🇺🇸🇮🇶🇸🇾 — Thomas Barrack, a top US diplomat in the Middle East, advocated for a firm run by his business partner to take part in the development of an oil pipeline from Iraq to Syria, activities that appear to violate federal ethics rules, according to Reuters.

In July, Iraq and Syria signed memorandums of understanding with a consortium made up of Californian investment group TI Capital — along with Chevron and Qatar's UCC Holding — to carry out studies for rehabilitating the pipeline, which would skirt the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint. Several people told Reuters in August the pipeline would take at least four years and cost $15 billion to build.

Barrack, US presidential special envoy to both Iraq and Syria as well as Ambassador to Turkey, has a longstanding business relationship with TI Capital and its founder Ziad Ghandour. At the time of his confirmation hearings in 2025, he held a financial interest entitling him to as much as a fifth of the profits from a San Francisco real-estate venture managed by TI Capital, with Ghandour as chief executive.

During engagements with Syrian and Iraqi officials after the start of the war in Iran, Barrack pressed for Ghandour's firm to be included in the project, according to two people with direct knowledge of the discussions. On June 16, a month before the consortium agreement was signed, Barrack and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi issued a joint statement commending Iraq's decision "to advance a memorandum of understanding with TI Capital to rehabilitate the Kirkuk-Baniyas Pipeline." The statement made no mention of Chevron or UCC.

➡️ Reuters found no evidence that Barrack stands to profit from the pipeline or other projects, and his ties to Ghandour would not constitute a criminal conflict of interest unless he stood to directly profit from the pipeline itself, two ethics lawyers said. However, former White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter said the relationship makes such advocacy "a serious problem" under regulations prohibiting officials from participating in matters that call into question their impartiality. "Have nothing to do with this pipeline. Completely recuse," Painter said. Barrack has not filed a conflict-of-interest waiver with the US Office of Government Ethics regarding his ties to the company as it participates in the project.

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