Kamal Ghorui
TOI correspondent from Washington: The US State Department on Monday announced closure of its consulate in Peshawar, a move that underscores a striking contradiction in the Trump administration’s Pakistan policy: warm rhetoric and gushing praise at the top, but a steady drawdown of diplomatic infrastructure on the ground.The decision, framed by officials as a matter of “safety” and “efficient resource management,” will transfer responsibility for engagement in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to the US embassy in Islamabad, roughly 114 miles away. The closure comes even as Trump has publicly praised Pakistan’s leadership, lavishing unusual accolades on the country’s “field marshall,” (sic) whom Trump has taken a fancy to, for his help as an intermediary with Teheran. The State Department has offered a familiar quartet of justifications: cost savings, reorganization, shifting logistical needs, and security concerns in closing the Peshawar consulate. Officials also point to the diminished strategic role of the post since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, when Peshawar served as a key logistical hub. Security concerns have also been cited, with recent unrest in the region raising risks for personnel. The Peshawar shutdown is the first permanent closure of an overseas US diplomatic mission in Trump’s second term. Across the Middle East and South Asia, several US consulates have temporarily suspended operations amid regional tensions, particularly following military escalations involving Iran and a “Worldwide Caution” advisory issued earlier this year. Meanwhile, visa services at many posts have been curtailed under expanded restrictions and “extreme vetting” policies.Behind these operational shifts lies a more profound transformation: a systematic downsizing of America’s diplomatic corps. In the latest phase of a sweeping “Reduction in Force,” more than 200 career diplomats, including approximately 246 many Foreign Service Officers, were laid off on Monday. The cuts have disproportionately targeted bureaus dealing with refugees, human rights, and democracy promotion. The administration has openly justified this by arguing that such offices were “prone to ideological capture,” signaling a deliberate pivot away from traditional pillars of US diplomacy.Compounding the upheaval is the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), long a cornerstone of American soft power. With its functions curtailed or absorbed, many State Department roles have been deemed redundant.Employees reportedly arrived at work in recent days under instructions to bring passports and government devices, prepared to surrender them on short notice—a process that has fueled what one insider called “an atmosphere of quiet panic.”The downsizing has coincided with a striking shift in how the administration conducts high-stakes diplomacy. Instead of relying primarily on career diplomats and subject-matter experts, key negotiations—particularly those involving Iran’s nuclear program—have increasingly been handled by political loyalists and informal envoys, including Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.Neither has formal diplomatic training or deep technical expertise in nuclear nonproliferation, a domain that typically requires years of specialized experience.At the top of the diplomatic hierarchy, Marco Rubio is juggling an unusually broad portfolio. In addition to serving as Secretary of State, he has been tasked with multiple overlapping roles in national security and policy coordination, raising questions about the administration’s bandwidth and strategic coherence. On Tuesday, he stood in for White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, who is on maternity leave. At a raucous briefing, there were no pregnant pauses. “This is chaos, guys,” Rubio said at one point as he engaged with the clamorous press.
