Czech Republic reopens Damascus embassy to help US

The Czech Republic, whose embassy has represented the United States in Syria since 2012, has reopened its mission after closing it last month following the rebellion that toppled Bashar al-Assad.

The Czech foreign ministry said Friday it had appointed career diplomat Vitezslav Pivonka to lead the embassy as the charge d’affaires.

Prague has represented the US and other Western countries in Syria after nations closed their embassies because of civil war.

“We restored the activities of our embassy over Christmas,” Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said late Thursday.

“The head of the section in charge of US affairs is back,” he said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had recently called him to “make sure that we are going to continue” the service, he added.

Pivonka spent six years as the Czech ambassador to Moscow until he was recalled in May 2024.

He was in office during the 2021 expulsions of dozens of diplomats on both sides after Prague blamed Moscow of orchestrating ammunition depot blasts on Czech soil that killed two people in 2014.

Lipavsky said Prague, a staunch supporter of Israel in the Middle East and of Ukraine battling a Russian invasion, is currently “tiptoeing” when it comes to the situation in Syria.

“The officials forming the new Syrian government are on different sanction lists over their past,” Lipavsky said.

“But they are openly declaring they want to re-establish ties with the world and I think we should answer the call, for instance in order to get the Russians out of Syria,” he added.

Russian troops, which intervened in Assad’s favour during Syria’s civil war in 2015, are still stationed in the country.