Thomas Barrack raised the American flag over the ambassador's residence for the first time since the U.S. embassy closed in 2012, underlining a rapid expansion of U.S. ties with Damascus since ...

The symbolic raising was the first time the U.S. flag had flown above Damascus since Washington shut down its embassy in 2012 in response to violence that eventually killed over 650,000 people.

The new US envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, attended a flag-raising ceremony to inaugurate the US ambassador’s residence in Damascus yesterday. The ceremony was important because it shows how the US ...