New U.S. Envoy Makes First and Symbolic Trip to Syria

The new U.S. envoy to Syria made his first visit to the country on Thursday, a sign of warming relations as he called for the country’s new leadership to work toward a nonaggression pact with Israel.

The special envoy, Thomas Barrack, was appointed by President Trump just last week, days after Mr. Trump said that he would lift U.S. sanctions on Syria. Mr. Trump’s surprise announcement came ahead of a meeting in Saudi Arabia with Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Shara, whom he pledged to help establish a stable government after the toppling of Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship last year.

Mr. Barrack’s prompt trip to Damascus signaled an attempt to build further momentum toward improving relations between the United States and Syria’s new government. While in the Syrian capital, Mr. Barrack raised the American flag over the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Damascus for the first time in over a decade. He later met with Mr. al-Shara and other Syrian officials, including the interior and defense ministers.

In remarks after those meetings, Mr. Barrack echoed another recent refrain of Mr. Trump — urging Syria to normalize relations with Israel, which have long been hostile and which the U.S. envoy on Thursday called a “solvable problem.”

“It starts with a dialogue,” Mr. Barrack told reporters in Damascus, according to Reuters. “I’d say we need to start with just a nonaggression agreement, talk about boundaries and borders.”