The US envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, raised the American flag over the ambassador's residence in Damascus on Thursday for the first time since the embassy closed in 2012, a year after conflict broke out following Assad's brutal crackdown on peaceful protests.
After months of relatively little engagement with Syria's new administration, the US has rapidly built ties in recent weeks. US President Donald Trump met with Syria's new President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Riyadh in mid-May, and his administration eased US sanctions on the country.
Barrack, who is also the US ambassador to Turkey, was named as Syria's US envoy on 23 May and is on his first official visit to the country.
Washington was initially circumspect about Syria's new leaders, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former leader of an Islamist insurgent group that the US still lists as a terrorist organisation.
However, the Trump administration, encouraged by two US allies in the region, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, has in recent weeks shown increasing openness to Damascus.
Trump held a surprise meeting with al-Sharaa in Riyadh earlier this month, and the US has begun to roll back decades of sanctions slapped on Syria under the Assad dynasty.
The US State Department posted a statement on X on Thursday attributed to Trump announcing Barrack's appointment as envoy to Syria.
"Tom understands there is great potential in working with Syria to stop Radicalism, improve Relations, and secure Peace in the Middle East. Together, we will Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!" the statement said.
Barrack thanked Trump in an X post for "your bold vision, empowering a historically rich region, long oppressed, to reclaim its destiny through self-determination."
The US closed its embassy in Damascus in February 2012, nearly a year after the civil war that went on to ravage Syria for over a decade.
Then-ambassador Robert Ford was pulled out of Syria shortly before the embassy closed. Subsequent US envoys for Syria operated from abroad and did not visit Damascus.
During Syria's 14-year war, hundreds of thousands of people were killed, millions were displaced both internally and outside the country, and the West ratcheted up pressure against Assad by cutting ties and imposing tough sanctions, but he clung onto power with help from Iran and Russia.
Assad was ousted in December 2024, in a lightning rebel offensive spearheaded by Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
(Reuters)