Syria Today | New US ambassador to Syria announced as top American diplomat touches down in Damascus

New US ambassador to Syria announced as top American diplomat touches down in Damascus

US President Barack Obama nominated career diplomat Robert Ford as the country’s new ambassador to Damascus on February 16. The nomination coincided with a visit by US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns to Syria’s capital for talks with President Bashar al-Assad.

In a statement to the media following his meeting with Assad on February 17, Burns said he had come to Damascus to convey Obama’s “continuing interest in building better relations with Syria based upon mutual interest and mutual respect”.

“We talked candidly about areas in which we disagree, but also identified areas of common ground on which we can build,” Burns said. “I have no illusions about the challenges on the road ahead, but my meeting with President Assad leaves me hopeful that we can make progress together in the interest of both of our countries.”

During the trip, Burns also met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mu’allem. He was accompanied to Damascus by the US State Department’s Counterterrorism Coordinator Daniel Benjamin who met with Syrian officials on February 18 for security talks. On February 3, the New Yorker magazine reported that Syria had renewed its sharing of intelligence with the CIA and Britain’s MI6.

Benjamin described the talks as “productive and detailed”, adding that “we believe Syria can play a constructive role in mitigating these and other threats in cooperation with regional states and the United States.”

On February 16, Obama announced the appointment of Ford as the new US ambassador to Damascus, subject to congressional approval.

Ford, who speaks Arabic, is currently the deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Baghdad. He previously served as ambassador to Algeria from 2006 to 2008, as a political counsellor in the US Embassy in Baghdad from 2004 to 2006 and as deputy chief of mission in Bahrain from 2001 to 2004.

Washington withdrew its ambassador from Syria in 2005 following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Syria denies any involvement in the killing. Since that time, a chargé d’affaires has been the highest-ranking American diplomat in Syria.

On February 20, the US lifted a travel advisory that warned American travellers about security concerns in Syria.

“After carefully assessing the current situation in Syria, we determined that circumstances didn’t merit extending the travel warning,” US Embassy in Damascus spokesperson Tracy Roberts Pounds said.

Welcoming the move, Mu’allem said “both sides will start taking practical steps” to improve relations.

“We are willing to see a real development in these relations and from our side we will do what we have to,” he said.