Democrats in the House of Representatives are discussing asking President Joe Biden for the resignation of Brett McGurk, his deeply controversial Middle East adviser, according to a Democratic lawmaker and a senior congressional aide.

Led by progressives who see McGurk as driving a counterproductive Middle East policy with an unacceptable human rights toll, the effort would take the form of a letter to Biden from a group of House Democrats, they said.

A draft has already been written and supporters of the bid expect to secure between 10 and 15 signatories, the lawmaker told HuffPost. The plan is to circulate the letter widely next week and raise the proposal at the next meeting of the powerful Congressional Progressive Caucus, which has more than 100 members.

Frustration has reached a boiling point among Democrats who see McGurk as responsible for harmful policies that undermine Bidens support, the lawmaker said. Sources for this story requested anonymity to discuss ongoing deliberations. Spokespeople for McGurk declined to comment.

The White House adviser has faced significant criticism since he became White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa when Biden entered office in 2021.

Skeptics say that he wrongly focused Bidens Middle East policy on deepening U.S. ties to Saudi Arabia a risky proposition given its record of rights abuses that implicate the U.S., and its resistance to Washingtons requests on matters from drawing closer to Russia and China to preventing spikes in oil prices.

In announcing McGurks appointment, Biden cast him as one of a group of crisis-tested, deeply experienced public servants [who] will work tirelessly to protect the American people and restore Americas leadership in the world. Current and former U.S. officials told HuffPost that McGurk wields major influence over the president and has sidelined expertise from other national security personnel at agencies like the State Department and Pentagon.

McGurks focus on Saudi matters made him determined to craft a U.S.-brokered deal for the kingdom to establish relations with Israel for the first time since its founding in 1948. Many U.S. officials and regional experts say that the U.S. push for a Saudi-Israel agreement inspired resentment among Palestinians who wanted the Saudis major players in the Muslim-majority world to resist such a bargain without the creation of a Palestinian state. Biden has publicly said that the Oct. 7 attack inside Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas was intended to stymie Saudi-Israel talks.

But despite the October massacre of approximately 1,200 people in Israel and the killing of more than 24,000 Palestinians in Israels U.S.-backed offensive against Hamas since then, McGurk has doubled down on the idea of a Saudi-Israel bargain as the way to establish peace in the Middle East, HuffPost has reported. In recent weeks, he has pushed fellow U.S. officials to tie the future of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza to the prospective Saudi-Israel deal, circulating a plan suggesting that Washington can secure reconstruction money from the Saudis, Israeli concessions to the Palestinians, and a Palestinian blessing for the deal as part of an urgent road map for rebuilding Gaza, HuffPost revealed last week .

U.S. officials told HuffPost that the plan was unlikely to succeed one called it delusionally optimistic and, even if implemented in some form, would likely overlook Palestinian discontent, sowing seeds of future violence. The White House National Security Council initially declined to comment, and then called the story not true. On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly denied that the plan could be adopted, saying that Israel would not accept the establishment of a Palestinian state or even the limited Palestinian autonomy in Gaza that McGurks proposal envisioned.