Latest news with #Barrack
Kuwait Times
12 hours ago
- Business
- Kuwait Times
US flag raised in Damascus, $7 billion power deal inked
DAMASCUS: The United States' newly-appointed Syria envoy said he believed peace between Syria and the Zionist entity was achievable as he made his first trip to Damascus on Thursday, praising the Islamist-led government and saying it was ready for dialogue. Thomas Barrack raised the American flag over the ambassador's residence for the first time since the US embassy closed in 2012, underlining a rapid expansion of US ties with Damascus since President Donald Trump unexpectedly announced the lifting of sanctions and met Syrian leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa. 'Syria and (the Zionist entity) is a solvable problem. But it starts with a dialogue,' Barrack told a small group of journalists in Damascus. 'I'd say we need to start with just a non-aggression agreement, talk about boundaries and borders,' he said. Barrack also said that Syria would no longer be deemed a state sponsor of terrorism by the United States, saying the issue was 'gone with the Assad regime being finished' but that Congress had a six-month review period. '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 said. Interim President Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda commander, is rapidly reorienting a country that had turbulent ties with the West and close relations to Iran and Russia during more than five decades of rule by the Assad family. Syria signed a $7 billion energy deal on Thursday with a consortium of Qatari, US and Turkish companies as it seeks to rehabilitate its war-ravaged electricity sector. The agreement, signed in the presence of interim Sharaa and Barrack, is expected to generate 5,000 megawatts of electricity and cover half of the country's needs. The agreement involves building four combined-cycle gas turbine power plants with a total capacity of 4,000 megawatts, plus a 1,000-MW solar power plant in southern Syria. Syria has long been a frontline state in the Arab-Zionist conflict, with the Zionist entity occupying the Syrian Golan Heights since a war in 1967. The Zionist entity seized more Syrian territory in the border zone following Bashar Al-Assad's ouster in December, citing concerns about the jihadist roots of Syria's new rulers. Reuters reported on Tuesday that Zionist and Syrian officials were in direct contact, having held face-to-face meetings aimed at calming tensions and preventing conflict in the border region. Trump urged Sharaa to normalize relations with Israel when they met in Riyadh earlier this month. Barrack, who is also US ambassador to Turkey, was named as Syria's US envoy on May 23. He noted Syria had been under US sanctions since 1979. Some of the toughest were implemented in 2020 under the so-called Caesar act, which Barrack said must be repealed by Congress within a 180-day window. 'I promise you the one person who has less patience with these sanctions than all of you is President Trump,' he said. The US closed its embassy in Damascus in February 2012, nearly a year after protests against Assad devolved into a violent conflict that went on to ravage Syria for more than a decade. Then-ambassador Robert Ford was pulled out of Syria shortly before the embassy closed. Subsequent US envoys for Syria operated from abroad and did not visit Damascus. – Agencies
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's Syrian Outreach Turns an Enemy Into a Friend
Six months ago, U.S.-Syrian enmity seemed locked in for good. Congress was set to renew the Caesar Civilian Protection Act, a set of economic sanctions designed to weaken the government of Bashar al-Assad by preventing postwar reconstruction. And it was only the latest in a set of economic sanctions imposed in 1979, when the U.S. State Department declared Syria a state sponsor of terrorism. Even the revolution that overthrew Assad in December 2024 did not seem to change the trajectory. As rebels led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, then nicknamed Abu Mohammad al-Golani, advanced on Damascus, the Biden administration insisted that Golani and his men were also terrorists. Congress went ahead with the Caesar Act renewal, and hawkish factions in Washington prepared to put impossible conditions on sanctions relief. This week, however, the Trump administration seems to have let bygones be bygones. On Friday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a three-page waiver lifting almost all economic sanctions on Syria unconditionally. On Wednesday, an American flag flew over Damascus for the first time in a decade as the Syrian government handed back the old U.S. ambassador's residence to Thomas Barrack, who serves as both U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria. Barrack said that President Donald Trump would soon be taking Syria off of the terrorism sponsors list, and claimed that the long-running Syrian-Israeli conflict is a "solvable problem," Reuters reported. "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 told the crowd at the residence. Later on his trip, Barrack followed up on the symbolism by signing off on a huge concrete investment: a $7 billion deal for a consortium of American, Turkish, and Qatari companies to build up Syrian electrical infrastructure. "Syria is OPEN FOR BUSINESS," Barrack declared on X. "Commerce not chaos!" It was the same tone Trump himself struck in Saudi Arabia earlier this month, where he denounced "so-called nation builders" who tried to impose their visions by force, bragged that "some of the closest friends of the United States of America are nations we fought wars against in generations past," and shook hands with Sharaa himself. Of course, a waiver isn't a permanent end to sanctions. The sanctions imposed by Congress have to be lifted by Congress. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that it should do exactly that. The administration could have taken a different approach. Sharaa had fought for Al Qaeda in the past, and Syria still has active territorial disputes with Israel, which captured the Golan Heights in a 1967 war and seized additional land after Assad fell. Some figures in the administration wanted to slow-roll sanctions relief as a way to keep the new Syrian government on its toes. But Rubio argued to Congress that keeping post-revolutionary Syria economically isolated could cause dangerous instability. By lifting almost all sanctions at once, the Trump administration demonstrated another foreign policy principle: You can just do things. Despite the bureaucratic tangle of sanctions, which some officials hinted would be a complicated process to undo, Trump simply waived them all with a short, simple declaration. And unlike the former Biden administration, which often complained that its hands were tied by hawkish Senate Democrats on foreign policy, Trump doesn't seem to be paying any political price for his outreach to Syria. A bigger test will be whether Trump can pull off the same maneuver with Iran, whose nuclear program he is currently negotiating to restrict. Sharaa won Syria a fresh start by overthrowing Assad. Iran, on the other hand, has a whole collection of ongoing, high-stakes disagreements with the U.S. And the U.S.-Iranian rivalry—which includes the 1979 embassy takeover and Iranian intervention in Iraq—has always been more emotionally charged than any U.S.-Syrian rivalry. Still, many of the same factors that led to "commerce not chaos" with Syria are aligned in favor of a deal with Iran. The Arab states now investing in Syria also want to do business with Iran without fear of U.S. sanctions, and have been reportedly lobbying Trump to deescalate that conflict. Trump himself seems pretty confident that a deal is around the corner—confident enough that he warned Israel not to attack Iran in the meantime. "I think we're going to see something very sensible," he told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. "That could change at any moment. It could change with a phone call. But right now, I think they want to make a deal, and if we make a deal, it would save a lot of lives." The post Trump's Syrian Outreach Turns an Enemy Into a Friend appeared first on
Express Tribune
2 days ago
- Politics
- Express Tribune
US envoy urges Syria-Israel non-aggression pact
The United States' new envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, on Thursday called for a non-aggression agreement between Syria and Israel, describing their conflict as a "solvable problem". In remarks to Saudi channel Al Arabiya, Barrack said the two sides could "start with just a non-aggression agreement, talk about boundaries and borders" to rebuild ties. Syria and Israel have technically been at war since 1948. Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and has carried out hundreds of strikes and several incursions since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December. Israel says its strikes aim to stop advanced weapons reaching Syria's new authorities, whom it considers jihadists. It has also warned of further action if they fail to protect the Druze minority. Barrack made the comments after inaugurating the US ambassador's residence in Damascus, the first such move in more than a decade. Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said earlier this month his administration was holding indirect talks with Israel to calm tensions. Sharaa, once a jihadist leader wanted in the United States, led the rebel offensive that toppled Assad. Since coming to power, he has pledged inclusive governance and openness to the world. His administration has re-established diplomatic ties with several powers. During a Gulf tour this month, US President Donald Trump announced the lifting of sanctions on Syria and voiced hope it would normalise relations with Israel. "I told him, I hope you're going to join once you're straightened out and he said yes. But they have a lot of work to do," he said of Sharaa, calling him a "young, attractive guy" and a "fighter". On May 8 in France, Sharaa said Syria was holding "indirect talks through mediators" with Israel to "try to contain the situation so it does not reach the point where it escapes the control of both sides." AFP
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Amid energy deal, United States reopens Syrian ambassador's residence
May 29 (UPI) -- The United States ambassador's residence in Damascus, Syria, re-opened Thursday after being closed for 13 years, presaging a warming of relations between the two countries. Tom Barrack, the current U.S. ambassador to Turkey, has also been appointed special envoy to Syria, and raised a U.S. flag outside the residence to inaugurate it, according to the Syrian run news agency SANA. "Tom understands there is great potential in working with Syria to stop Radicalism, improve Relations, and secure Peace in the Middle East," a statement from the State Department on X said. "Together, we will make America and the world, SAFE AGAIN!" Barrack met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to witness the signing of an agreement with Middle Eastern countries aimed at developing a $7 billion, 5,000 megawatt energy project that would revitalize Syria's aging and worn electricity grid and use it as the backbone of the new power project. The new energy project could supply Syria with 50% of its electricity needs, according to a statement from Qatari-based UCC Holding, which is among the partners in the project. In a further sign of warming relations between the United States and the Middle East, President Donald Trump met earlier this month with al-Sharaa in Riyadh, a move that prompted the United States to begin walking back sanctions imposed on Syria during the repressive regime of Bahsar al-Assad. During the reopening of the ambassador's residence Thursday, Barrack called lifting the sanctions a "bold move," and said it comes with "no conditions, no requirements." Barrack credited Trump for "your bold vision, empowering a historically rich region, long oppressed, to reclaim its destiny through self-determination."
Euronews
3 days ago
- Business
- Euronews
US reopens ambassador's residence in bid to warm relations with Syria
An American flag was raised outside of the long-shuttered US ambassador's residence in Damascus on Thursday, in a sign of growing ties between Washington and the new Syrian government. The US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, who has also been appointed as special envoy to Syria, visited the capital, Damascus, to inaugurate the residence. On his visit, Barrack met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and attended the signing of an agreement for a consortium of Qatari, Turkish and US companies for development of a 5,000-megawatt energy project to revitalise much of Syria's war-battered electricity grid. A consortium led by Qatar's UCC Concession Investments, along with Power International USA and Turkey's Kalyon GES Enerji Yatirimlari and Cengiz Enerji, will develop four combined-cycle gas turbines with a total generating capacity estimated at approximately 4,000 megawatts and a 1,000-megawatt solar power plant. 'Once completed, these projects are expected to supply over 50% of the country's electricity needs,' said UCC in a statement Washington hasn't formally reopened its embassy in Damascus, which closed in 2012 after protests against the government of ousted longtime President Bashar al-Assad, was met with a brutal crackdown, spiralling the country into civil war. But despite the embassy's doors remaining shuttered, Barrack's visit and the raising of the US flag were a significant signal of warming relations between Damascus and Washington. Washington was initially wary about Syria's new leaders, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, the former leader of an Islamist insurgent group that the US still lists as a terrorist organisation. However, the Trump administration, encouraged by regional allies Saudi Arabia and Turkey, has in recent weeks shown increasing openness to embracing the new Syrian government. Trump held a surprise meeting with al-Sharaa in Riyadh earlier this month, as he embarked on his first tour of the Middle East in his four-month-old second term. After the trip, the US begun to roll back decades of sanctions slapped on Syria under the al-Assad dynasty. Speaking at the ceremony celebrating the signing of the energy deals, Barrack praised the 'bold decision' to lift sanctions and said the move comes with 'no conditions, no requirements." There is only "one simple expectation and that expectation sits behind me, the alignment of these amazing countries,' he said, referring to the flags of the US, Qatar, Turkey and Syria behind him. The US State Department posted a statement on X on Thursday attributed to Trump announcing Barrack's appointment as envoy to Syria. 'Tom understands there is great potential in working with Syria to stop Radicalism, improve Relations, and secure Peace in the Middle East. Together, we will Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!' the statement said. In response, Barrack praised Trump in a post on X for his 'bold vision, empowering a historically rich region, long oppressed, to reclaim its destiny through self-determination.'
