The Stars and Stripes were flown above Damascus, Syria, on Thursday for the first time since 2012.

In a ceremony attended by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al Shaibani, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack raised the U.S. flag above the U.S. ambassador’s residence in the capital. The symbolic raising was the first time the U.S. flag had flown above Damascus since Washington shut down its embassy in 2012 in response to violence that eventually killed over 650,000 people.