Latest news with #nonaggression
New York Times
6 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
New U.S. Envoy Makes First and Symbolic Trip to Syria
The new U.S. envoy to Syria made his first visit to 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.' But it was not immediately clear whether Mr. Barrack had himself raised the topic in his meetings with Syrian officials on Thursday during what was the first official U.S. visit in years. American relations with Syria have been on ice since 2011, when Mr. al-Assad's crackdown on pro-democracy protests and the armed uprising that followed set off a civil war that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and forced a mass exodus of Syrians. The violence prompted the United States to shutter its embassy in 2012, and to impose further sanctions on Mr. al-Assad's regime. U.S. envoys for Syria operated from abroad and did not visit Damascus for more than a decade, as the civil war raged. But then in December, a coalition of rebels led by Mr. al-Shara ousted Mr. al-Assad, and many Syrians began to demand relief from crippling international sanctions. The Trump administration initially took a wary stance toward Syria's new leader, in large part because of his previous ties to an offshoot of Al Qaeda, for which the United States had put Mr. al-Shara on a blacklist. Mr. al-Shara has taken pains to distance himself from that past, and has urged Western nations to lift the punishing sanctions to help stabilize a country where more than 90 percent of the population lives under the poverty line, according to U.N. estimates. In announcing that the United States would lift sanctions, Mr. Trump said he wanted to give Syria 'a chance at greatness.' On Thursday, Mr. Barrack echoed that position from Damascus, where billboards in the city center thanked the U.S. president for the opportunity to 'Make Syria Great Again.' '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,' Mr. Barrack said, according to Reuters. While it was not yet clear how much relief Syrians have felt since the lifting of U.S. sanctions, the Trump administration's new stance does appear to be helping to clear the way for new investments and funds for postwar reconstruction. Syria's energy ministry on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Qatari-based UCC Holding for a $7 billion investment to help produce 5,000 megawatts of electricity for the country, which has seen its infrastructure battered by war — an announcement made on the day of Mr. Barrack's visit. He claimed partial credit on America's behalf for the deal shortly later, posting on social media, 'Only a week after President Trump's announcement to lift sanctions, we have already unlocked billions of dollars of international investment for Syria.' Mr. Barrack also said that the Trump administration would remove Washington's yearslong designation of Syria a state sponsor of terrorism. 'Thank God, the issue of state sponsor of terrorism is gone with the Assad regime being finished,' he said.
Asharq Al-Awsat
6 days ago
- Business
- Asharq Al-Awsat
US Flag Raised in Damascus, Envoy Says Syria-Israel Peace is Possible
The United States' newly-appointed Syria envoy said he believed peace between Syria and Israel was achievable as he made his first trip to Damascus on Thursday, praising the new 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, Reuters reported. "Syria and Israel 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 has long been a frontline state in the Arab-Israeli conflict, with Israel occupying the Syrian Golan Heights since a war in 1967. Israel seized more Syrian territory in the border zone following Bashar al-Assad's ouster in December, citing concerns about militants' roots of Syria's new rulers. Reuters reported on Tuesday that Israeli 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 earlier this month. Barrack, who is also US ambassador to Türkiye, 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.
Khaleej Times
7 days ago
- Business
- Khaleej Times
US envoy suggests 'non-aggression agreement' between Syria and Israel
The United States' new envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, called for a non-aggression agreement between Syria and Israel in remarks to Saudi channel Al Arabiya on Thursday. Syria and Israel have technically been at war since 1948, with Israel taking the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967. Since the ouster in December of former president Bashar Al Assad, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes and multiple incursions into Syria. Barrack, who inaugurated the US ambassador's residence in Damascus on Thursday, said the conflict between the two countries was a "solvable problem". To him, Syria and Israel could "start with just a non-aggression agreement, talk about boundaries and borders" to build a new relationship with its neighbour. Israel has said its strikes on Syria were aimed at preventing advanced weapons from falling into the hands of the new authorities, whom it considers jihadists. It has also threatened further intervention should the new authorities fail to protect the Druze religious minority. Syria's interim President Ahmed Al Sharaa said earlier this month that his administration was holding "indirect talks" with Israel to calm tensions between the two countries. Restoring US ties Sharaa, who led the rebel offensive that toppled Assad in December, was once a jihadist leader wanted in the United States. Since coming to power, he has repeatedly pledged inclusive governance that is open to the world, and restored Syria's ties with global powers, ending decades of isolation under Assad. While on tour in the Gulf earlier this month, US President Donald Trump announced the lifting of sanctions on Syria, and said he hoped the country 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. He also called Sharaa a "young, attractive guy" with a "very strong past. Fighter". On May 8, Sharaa said in France that 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". The United States has in recent months started rebuilding ties with Syria, ending more than a decade of diplomatic freeze. 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. US flag raised 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. Barrack, who is also ambassador to Turkey, inaugurated the US ambassador's residence in the Syrian capital with Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad Al Shaibani, state media outlet Sana reported. AFP photographers saw the US flag raised at the ambassador's residence, just a few hundred metres from the US embassy in the Abu Rummaneh neighbourhood, 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," Trump said, according to a post on the State Department's X. The US 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 Sharaa, who led the Islamist coalition that toppled Assad in December. The last US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, was declared persona non grata in 2011 after defying the Syrian government by visiting a city that was under army siege and the site of a major anti-regime protests. In late December, a US delegation led by Barbara Leaf, the State Department's Middle East representative, held an initial meeting with the new leadership in Damascus.
