U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack visited Damascus on Thursday, Syrian state media reported, signaling a further warming of ties between Washington and Syria after the fall of Bashar Assad.
The United States has, in recent months, started rebuilding ties with Syria under the new administration, ending more than a decade of diplomatic freeze.
Barrack, who is also the ambassador to Türkiye, inaugurated the U.S. ambassador's residence in the Syrian capital with Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad al-Shaibani, SANA reported.
AFP photographers saw the U.S. flag raised at the ambassador's residence, just a few hundred meters from the U.S. embassy in the Abu Rummaneh neighborhood, under tight security.
"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 said, according to a post on the State Department's X.
The U.S. embassy in Syria was closed after Assad's repression of a peaceful uprising that began in 2011, which degenerated into civil war.
Barrack met with interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Istanbul on May 24, after the United States lifted sanctions on Syria.
The meeting followed a meeting in Riyadh between Trump and al-Sharaa, who led the anti-regime coalition that toppled Assad in December.
The last U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, was declared persona non grata in 2011 after defying the Syrian government by visiting Hama – about 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of Damascus – while it was under army siege and the site of a major anti-regime protest.
In late December, a U.S. delegation led by Barbara Leaf, the State Department's Middle East representative, held an initial meeting with the new leadership in Damascus.
