Onward to Damascus

Great news from Foggy Bottom this morning:

The United States is to send an ambassador to Damascus, ending a four year diplomatic absence in Syria, unnamed US officials have said.

I've been working on a post about how Syria's foreign policy is likely to change markedly over the next few years. It'll be up later this week, but the takeaway is that the Syrian government wants better ties with the U.S. That's partly because of Obama, but there are other factors as well, like the fact that Syria isn't getting much out of its unequal relationship with Iran.

So returning an ambassador to Damascus is a very good idea. (The U.S. withdrew its ambassador in 2005 after former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated.)