Middle East News Network: The Associated Press reported on Friday that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has informed Congress of its intention to plan for the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, which was closed in 2012 during the war.
\nAccording to the agency, a notification was sent earlier this month to congressional committees, informing lawmakers of the State Department\u2019s intention to implement a gradual approach to resuming embassy operations in Syria.
\nThe notification, dated February 10, stated that spending on the plans would begin within 15 days\u2014or as early as next week\u2014although no specific timeline has been set for completion or for the permanent return of American personnel to Damascus.
\nThe administration has been considering reopening the embassy since last year, following the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. The move was reportedly a priority for Trump\u2019s ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack.
\nBarrack has sought to achieve deeper rapprochement with Syria and its new leadership under Ahmad al-Sharaa, successfully working toward lifting U.S. sanctions and reintegrating Syria into regional and international communities.
\nLast May, Barrack visited Damascus and raised the American flag at the embassy compound, although the embassy has not yet officially reopened.
\nOn the same day the notification was sent to Congress, Barrack praised Syria\u2019s decision to participate in the coalition against ISIS, even as U.S. forces withdrew from a small but strategically significant base in southeastern Syria, amid ongoing issues between the government and the Kurdish minority.
\nPlans to reopen the embassy are classified, and the State Department declined to comment on the details beyond confirming that the notification had been sent to Congress.
\nHowever, the department has followed a similar \u201cphased\u201d approach in its plans to reopen the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, after the U.S. military operation that ousted former President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in January. This approach involved deploying temporary staff to live and work in provisional facilities.
\nSource: AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Middle East News Network: The Associated Press reported on Friday that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has informed Congress of its intention to plan for the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, which was closed in 2012 during the war. According to the agency, a notification was sent earlier this month to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":449196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[656],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-449195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-news-in-english"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/6998e6464c59b7411843c8a1.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=449195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":449197,"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449195\/revisions\/449197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/449196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=449195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=449195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mennews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=449195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}