Barrack, who arrived in Damascus on Thursday, stated Trump’s goal is to empower Syria’s current government.
Earlier this month, the US president ordered the lifting of sanctions on Syria.
The US envoy met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the state news agency SANA reported, without giving details about the content of the meeting.
Barrack also raised the American flag over the ambassador’s residence in Damascus on Thursday for the first time since the embassy closed in 2012, a year after conflict broke out.
The U.S. closed its embassy in Damascus in February 2012, nearly a year after protests against then-president Bashar al-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 U.S. envoys for Syria operated from abroad and did not visit Damascus.
During Syria’s 14-year war, hundreds of thousands of people were killed, millions were displaced both internally and outside the country and the West ratcheted up pressure against Assad by cutting ties and imposing tough sanctions, but he clung onto power with help from Iran and Russia.
Assad was ousted in December 2024, in a lightning rebel offensive spearheaded by Sharaa’s group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, once an affiliate of Al-Qaeda and whose members now form the backbone of Syria’s remade state.
