After the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December, the second Trump administration, initially viewed the new government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Jolani) from a security lens. However, following lobbying efforts by Gulf states and Turkey, the administration shifted its policy towards the al-Sharaa administration towards a more business focused approach.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration in May named<\/a><\/span> Tom Barrack, the current U.S. ambassador to Turkey, to be the State Department\u2019s next special envoy for Syria. Prior to his appointment, Ambassador Barrack participated<\/span><\/a> in a flag-raising ceremony on May 29 at the U.S. Chief of Mission residence in Damascus.<\/p>\n This shift marks a departure from the initial U.S. policy toward the new Syrian administration, reflecting a more business-oriented approach rather than viewing the new administration primarily through a counterterrorism lens. Barrack, a billionaire real estate investor with business ties to the Gulf, is also a businessman and a political appointee than a career diplomat, unlike his predecessors.<\/p>\n For instance, Ambassador James Jeffrey, the U.S. special representative for Syria engagement and special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS during the first Trump administration (2018-2020), was a career diplomat<\/span><\/a>, serving in the past as ambassador to Ankara, Baghdad, and holding several positions within the U.S. government on Iran, Turkey and Iraq.<\/p>\n But Barrack comes with a different background, and symbolises President Trump’s new policy towards Syria and also Turkey after President Trump promised to lift sanctions on May 13, 2025, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n On 14 May 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump met<\/a><\/span> with Syrian Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh for the first time. This came after heavy lobbying by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan<\/a><\/span>, and investments by Saudi Arabia, and Qatar in the U.S. economy. During President Trump\u2019s visit to the Middle East, the Saudis promised<\/a><\/span> to invest $600 billion in the US on May 13. Also in Qatar, on May 14, U.S. President Donald J. Trump signed an agreement<\/span><\/a> worth at least $1.2 trillion.<\/p>\n Initially, the Trump administration viewed the new Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Jolani) administration with suspicion and from a counter-terrorism lens, after the overthrow<\/a> <\/span>of the Assad regime in December. HTS at the time was still designated<\/a><\/span> as a terrorist organization by the UN Security Council.<\/p>\n In December, the Biden administration removed<\/span><\/a> the $10 million bounty that the U.S. had previously placed on de facto Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (previously known as al-Jolani) for his al-Qaeda <\/a><\/span>ties<\/span><\/a> (although his armed group split<\/a><\/span> from Al Qaeda in 2016). However, the Biden administration deferred<\/a><\/span> to the Trump administration in January to decide whether to lift more sanctions on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), its leader, and Syria in general.<\/p>\n U.S. President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s pick for counter terrorism chief Dr. Sebastian Gorka told<\/a><\/span> Al Arabiya on 18 December, that there was never a \u201cmodern Jihadi leader who suddenly became a moderate after decapitating Christians and Jews.\u201d Moreover, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard at her confirmation hearing<\/span><\/a> on Jan. 25, said she hates \u201cthat we have leaders who cozy up to Islamist<\/span> e<\/span><\/span>xtremists, minimizing them to so-called rebels.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSyria is now controlled by an Al-Qaeda offshoot, HTS led by an Islamist jihadist who danced in the streets on 9\/11 and who is responsible for the killing of many American service members,\u201d she also added.<\/p>\n As a result, in January, there were no signs that the Trump administration would remove sanctions. Furthermore, on March 9, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said<\/a><\/span> that the \u201cUnited States stands with Syria\u2019s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities\u201d after 1,500 Alawite civilians were killed<\/a><\/span> by forces linked to the new Syrian administration, following attacks Assad remnants on Syria\u2019s government forces in Syria\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n However, after the President Trump meeting in Riyadh in May, the U.S. policy significantly changed, and in June, the United States President Donald Trump signed<\/a><\/span> an executive order to lift sanctions on Syria. The new U.S. Ambassador also backed the new administration despite the clashes between Druze groups and the Syrian government, and did not mention the protection of minorities in Syria.<\/p>\n During heavy fighting between Druze armed groups and Syrian government-linked forces between July 13 and July 18, over 1,400 people were killed<\/a><\/span>, until a ceasefire was brokered. Israel intervened and backed Druze fighters with airstrikes.<\/p>\n According to a Reuters<\/span><\/a> report, Damascus believed it had a green light to take over Suwayda from Israel, and due to comments from U.S. special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack, who called for Syria to be centrally administered. Nevertheless, Damascus officials have denied<\/a><\/span> the Reuters report, although it was also reported such as Syria Transition<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n Ambassador Barrack also reportedly compared<\/a><\/span> Syrian Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa to George Washington on the Lebanese LBCI channel and on July 21, and he d<\/a>oubled down<\/a><\/span> on Washington\u2019s support for Syria\u2019s new government, claiming that minorities want a centralized regime and also denied<\/span><\/a> on July 23 that Syria\u2019s govt forces were involved in violence against Druze communities.<\/p>\n The U.S. envoy recently on August 6, also participated<\/a><\/span> in a signing ceremony between Syria and Turkish and Qatar companies.<\/p>\n The new policy also impacts the U.S.-backed SDF forces, which have been engaged in talks with Damascus.<\/p>\n On March 10, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander Mazloum Abdi signed a preliminary agreement<\/a><\/span> with Damascus to integrate the SDF into the new Syrian administration.<\/p>\n In July, after talks between SDF and Damascus didn\u2019t produce any results, the U.S. Ambassador Barrack told Rudaw<\/span><\/a>, that \u2018federalism doesn\u2019t work in Iraq and Syria\u201d and also used a similar discourse as the interim administration in Damascus, underlining that there<\/span><\/a> is only one flag, one Syria and one army.<\/p>\n It was therefore also no surprise that Kurdish parties in northern Syria condemned <\/a><\/span>statements by the U.S. envoy, accusing<\/a><\/span> him of lacking neutrality in his role as a diplomat, arguing that his statements go beyond the responsibilities of a neutral mediator.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, it should be noted that previous administrations did not support or endorse autonomy<\/a><\/span> in Syria, and in 2016 the U.S. also refused<\/span><\/a> to recognize self-rule in Syria, and also opposed holding<\/span><\/a> elections in northeast Syria in 2024.<\/p>\n Before Assad’s regime fall, Biden administration officials expressed<\/a><\/span> the desire for the SDF at the time to reach a deal with the Assad regime. However, at that time, the U.S. had no official relations with Damascus, unlike now. Moreover, the Assad regime wrongly believed time was on its side, and did not make any deal with the SDF.<\/p>\n According to the Arab Centre in Washington DC, it\u2019s evident now that Kurdish interests are being overtaken<\/a><\/span> by the larger U.S. goal of fostering ties with Syria\u2019s new regime.<\/p>\n Nicholas Heras, Senior Director for the Strategy and Programs Unit in the Academic Division at the New Lines Institute told the Kurdish Center for Studies that Ambassador Barrack\u2019s \u201cWhen it comes to Syria, Ambassador Barrack has shown a clear interest in Ahmed al-Sharaa as a type of populist Sunni leader who can work with Ankara closely and who has an appeal in the Gulf. Ambassador Barrack is demonstrating an ambivalent relationship with the SDF, seemingly leaving the SDF to the Pentagon and serving as a type of critic of the SDF within the U.S. government,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, recently, the U.S. Envoy also praised<\/a><\/span> the leadership of the SDF-Commander-in-Chief Mazloum Abdi and met the<\/span><\/a> SDF leader on July 19, in which he thanked General Mazloum for his leadership and the SDF\u2019s continued partnership in combating ISIS in Syria.<\/p>\n This shows that while the U.S. now favors engagement with Damascus, it does not necessarily intend to abandon the SDF and hopes to make a deal between both sides without violence. Furthermore, there is still support<\/a><\/span> for the SDF in the U.S. Congress, and so far there is no sign that U.S. troops will completely leave<\/span><\/a> Syria, although the U.S. is planning to reduce its forces to the Kasrek base in the Hasakah province.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December, the second Trump administration, initially viewed the new government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Jolani) from a security lens. However, following lobbying efforts by Gulf states and Turkey, the administration shifted its policy towards the al-Sharaa administration towards a more business focused approach. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":685,"featured_media":6105,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"jnews_post_split":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,61],"tags":[1031,1007,566,725,40,1062],"ppma_author":[768],"class_list":["post-6252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-slider","tag-ahmed-al-sharaa","tag-bashar-al-assad","tag-donald-trump","tag-sdf","tag-syria","tag-u-s"],"authors":[{"term_id":768,"user_id":685,"is_guest":0,"slug":"wladimir-van-wilgenburg","display_name":"Wladimir van Wilgenburg","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Wladimir-2.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Wladimir-2.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/685"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6253,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6252\/revisions\/6253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6252"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=6252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cis first and foremost the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and his style of diplomacy indicates that his mission in the region is to find proactive ways to improve what had been a considerably strained relationship between Washington and Ankara.\u201d<\/p>\n