The US envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, arrived at the ambassador's residence in the Syrian capital on Thursday, in the first official visit since the US embassy there closed in 2012, a year after Syria's conflict broke out.
Barrack, accompanied by the Syrian foreign minister, was appointed to the Syria role on May 23. He is also the US ambassador to Türkiye.
Washington hasn't formally reopened its embassy in Damascus, which closed in 2012 after protests against the government of then President Bashar Assad, met by a brutal crackdown, spiraled into civil war. Assad was unseated in December in a lightning offensive by opposition factions.
But Barrack’s visit is a significant signal of warming relations.
The Trump administration — encouraged by two US allies in the region, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye— 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.
