The Senate Foreign Relations Committee delayed an anticipated vote on Thursday on Joel Rayburn’s nomination to be assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs as he faces opposition from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), which could imperil his nomination.

The news is another setback for Middle East hawks who saw Rayburn, who held a series of national security positions in the first Trump administration, as more aligned with their worldview, as compared to the isolationists populating many senior roles throughout the administration.

Thursday’s delay came because an unidentified member exercised a prerogative to delay the vote on Rayburn until the committee’s next business meeting, which would still allow the committee to vote on him in the near future. But Rayburn may face bigger problems: If no Democrats support Rayburn, the vote on his nomination would be tied, meaning it cannot advance out of committee.

It’s not clear whether any Democrats will support him. At that point, Rayburn’s nomination could still be advanced through a full Senate floor vote, assuming a sufficient number of other Republicans support the nominee.

Paul told Jewish Insider that he was primarily concerned that Rayburn was involved in a deliberate effort in the Trump administration to obscure the U.S. troop presence in Syria from Trump and disobey orders to withdraw U.S. forces.

“My concern is that James Jeffrey directly disobeyed direction from President Trump. Said he was hiding the numbers of troop levels over there, and Rayburn worked for him at the time, and still remains close to him,” Paul said, referring to the then-U.S. envoy to the global counter-ISIS coalition. “I don’t know how that could have happened without him knowing about it, and I think we need people at the State Department who will follow the direction of the president.”

Paul said he had not been the senator who requested a delay in the committee vote on Rayburn.