Syria Clarification
As an addendum to this post, let me note that it's not the case, as what I wrote implied, that the United States doesn't have diplomatic relations with Syria. That's a formal step that we haven't taken. Instead, we're just in a weird state where we don't actually conduct diplomacy with Syria -- nobody takes the Syrian ambassador's calls, our chargé d'affaires in Damascus isn't laying the groundwork for higher level talks, nothing. Apologies for any confusion.