Hey there, I went by Damascus as well. As I have noticed , they usually are fast as long as you have a straight forward file and they don't send update or reply on email unless your file exceed the 6 month period. They are even considered one of the fastest embassies because of the high number of officers they have.
The issue is, Damascus deals with several Arabic country, so they sometime tend to have an intense background check for male, because of the obvious (war, military...) and because they have to deal with these Arabic country to check the background, it take time because these country aren't very well equipped and trained to work fast and efficient. My case took 4 month since receiving the AOR. Do you know where you stand in the processing or no clue at all?