US ambassador raises American flag in Damascus, endorses Syrian-Israeli peace

The United States' newly appointed ambassador to Syria, Thomas Barrack – who also serves as the ambassador to Turkey – made history on Thursday by raising the American flag over the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Damascus for the first time since 2012. The diplomatic move comes after U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this month decided to lift sanctions on Syria after meeting with interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia.

Barrack praised the new Syrian Islamist regime and argued that it is possible to achieve peace between Syria and Israel.

"Syria and Israel is a solvable problem. But it starts with a dialogue," the U.S. ambassador told media representatives in the Syrian capital. "I'd say we need to start with just a non-aggression agreement, talk about boundaries and borders."

Barrack also stated that Washington would no longer perceive Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism – an issue the envoy argued was "gone with the Assad regime being finished.” However, he noted that the U.S. Congress has a six-month review period to formally consider and decide on the matter.

In recent weeks, Syrian and Israeli officials have engaged in face-to-face de-escalation talks with the focus, according to an informed source, currently "about peace, as in the absence of war, rather than normalization.”

Washington’s envoy in Damascus stressed that Trump wants to give the new Syrian regime a fresh start.

"America's intent and the president's vision is that we have to give this young government a chance by not interfering, not demanding, by not giving conditions, by not imposing our culture on your culture," Barrack stated.

Syria has been under American sanctions since 1979 due to its state terrorism sponsoring activities, particularly across the Middle East. Some of Washington’s hardest sanctions on Syria were implemented in 2020. Because the Trump administration decided to lift sanctions on Syria, Barrack said that these sanctions must be repealed by Congress within 180 days.

"I promise you the one person who has less patience with these sanctions than all of you is President Trump," the U.S. ambassador said.

While Trump's administration has largely embraced the new Syrian Islamist regime as part of the new Middle East, the Israeli government remains suspicious of the Syrian president's past and his ties to al-Qaeda.

Following the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024, the Israeli military swiftly seized a strategically important buffer border zone in order to prevent anti-Israel Islamist terrorists from threatening Israeli border communities.

Trump reportedly urged al-Sharaa to join the Arab-Israeli Abraham Accords, which already resulted in normalized ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan in 2020.

Some Israeli officials remain cautiously optimistic about potential peace with Syria.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, recently assessed that Israel could potentially normalize its ties with Syria ahead of the prioritized normalization with Saudi Arabia.

"There's no reason now why we wouldn't be moving into accommodation with Syria and Lebanon," Leiter stated.

"We have dramatically changed the paradigm there. I'm very upbeat about the potential for an Abraham Accord with Syria and Lebanon, and that may actually precede Saudi Arabia."