U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack visited Damascus on Thursday, Syrian state media reported, signaling an additional warming of ties between Washington and Syria after the autumn of Bashar Assad.
The United States has, in latest months, began rebuilding ties with Syria below the brand new administration, ending greater than a decade of diplomatic freeze.
Barrack, who can also be the ambassador to Türkiye, inaugurated the U.S. ambassador’s residence within the Syrian capital with Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad al-Shaibani, SANA reported.
AFP photographers noticed the U.S. flag raised on the ambassador’s residence, just some hundred meters from the U.S. embassy within the Abu Rummaneh neighborhood, below tight safety.
“Tom understands there is great potential in working with Syria to stop Radicalism, improve Relations, and secure Peace in the Middle East,” U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned, in keeping with a submit on the State Department’s X.
The U.S. embassy in Syria was closed after Assad’s repression of a peaceable rebellion that started in 2011, which degenerated into civil battle.
Barrack met with interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Istanbul on May 24, after the United States lifted sanctions on Syria.
The assembly adopted a gathering in Riyadh between Trump and al-Sharaa, who led the anti-regime coalition that toppled Assad in December.
The final U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, was declared persona non grata in 2011 after defying the Syrian authorities by visiting Hama – about 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of Damascus – whereas it was below military siege and the positioning of a serious anti-regime protest.
In late December, a U.S. delegation led by Barbara Leaf, the State Department’s Middle East consultant, held an preliminary assembly with the brand new management in Damascus.
Source: www.dailysabah.com