Nikki Haley
United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and Energy Secretary Rick Perry have been added to the president’s national security council. Photo: Getty Images

WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and Energy Secretary Rick Perry have been added to the National Security Council’s (NSC) principals committee as part of its latest reshuffling.

Both Haley and Perry will now be “regular attendees” of the committee’s meetings, according to a memorandum published Wednesday in the Federal Register.

Haley’s addition to the committee came on the same day the United Nations envoy condemned Tuesday’s chemical weapons attack in Syria, which the U.S. has blamed on Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime. The memorandum also solidifies Perry’s position as an adviser to President Trump on matters of national security, as he oversees a vast national security complex in his role as Energy secretary.

The duo of Haley and Perry were among those added in the wake of White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon’s removal from the committee, a move heralded by Democrats.

National security adviser H.R. McMaster made the decision to remove Bannon, a request that was ultimately approved by Trump. McMaster had originally been tapped to lead the National Security Council after the ousting of national security adviser Michael Flynn in February. The decision to add Bannon in a January reorganization of the NSC was met with heavy criticism by Democrats and some national security experts, who argued his involvement could politicize the council’s agenda.

The director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have also been reinstated as regular attendees, the CIA director has also been added to the committee.

Under a 2009 presidential policy directive when former President Obama took office, the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs were listed as “regular members.” But Trump’s January reshuffling order said the director and the chairman would attend meetings only “where issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed.”