Donald Trump meets Syrian leader after pledge to lift sanctions

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President Donald Trump has met Syria’s new president Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh and urged him to normalise ties with Israel, one day after he announced that the US would lift sanctions on the country and consider restoring relations.

The move marks a dramatic softening of Washington’s stance towards Syria after Sharaa’s Islamist movement led a rebel offensive that toppled dictator Bashar al-Assad and ended his family’s more than 50-year dynastic rule over the Arab state. 

Trump said after the meeting that it had gone “great”, adding that Sharaa was a “young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter”.

Images in Saudi state media showed the pair warmly shaking hands — with Sharaa even cracking a rare smile — next to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The three leaders were later shown seated around a speaker as Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan joined the meeting by phone. Senior officials from the three countries, including foreign ministers, also attended.

Sharaa thanked Trump, saying the decision to lift sanctions would “open a new chapter enabling the reconstruction of Syria, the revival of its economy, and contributing to achieving security and stability within it”, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

Trump said his decision to lift sanctions, first announced the previous night at a Saudi-US investment forum, came after consulting the crown prince and Erdoğan in order to give Syrians a “fresh start”.

He told a gathering of Gulf leaders in the Saudi capital that Washington was “currently exploring normalising relations with Syria’s new government”.

Trump said the way forward for Syria was “not going to be easy anyway”, but that he felt strongly that removing the sanctions would give them a better chance to succeed and “it was my honour to do so”.

“He’s got a real shot at holding it together,” Trump said of Sharaa following their meeting. “I spoke with President Erdoğan, who is very friendly with him. He feels he’s got a shot of doing a good job. It’s a torn-up country.”

The White House said Trump encouraged Sharaa to sign on to the Abraham Accords with Israel, brokered in Trump’s first term, which led to the UAE and three other Arab states formalising relations with Israel in 2020.

He also urged the Syrian leader to deport “Palestinian terrorists”, help the US prevent the resurgence of Isis and assume responsibility for Isis detention centres in the Kurdish-held north-east.

Trump said he thought Syria would join the Abraham Accords at some point. “I think they have to get themselves straightened up. I told him, ‘I hope you’re going to join when it’s straightened out.’ He said, ‘Yes.’ But they have a lot of work to do.”

Washington’s decision to lift sanctions will boost Sharaa as he battles to consolidate his administration’s control over the fragmented nation.

After Trump’s announcement, many Syrians took to the streets of the capital, Damascus, honking their car horns in celebration.

Syrians and Arab states have urged western powers to lift all Assad-era sanctions on the country and have warned that reviving the bankrupt economy is the most challenging task facing Sharaa’s transitional government. 

The Syrian leader and his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham movement, which dominates the new government and security forces, are designated terrorists by the US because of past affiliations with al-Qaeda. 

But Sharaa renounced his ties to al-Qaeda in 2016 and has pledged that his government will be inclusive and respect all Syria’s sects and minorities. 

The UK and the EU have lifted some sanctions, while the US has issued waivers to permit trade in humanitarian goods and allow Qatar to pay public sector salaries in Syria. 

If Washington lifts all its sanctions, it would pave the way for others to follow.

The move is likely to anger Israel, which has deployed troops in Syria, seized territory in the country’s south and repeatedly launched air strikes against Syrian military facilities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly described Sharaa’s government as a “jihadist regime”.

Trump’s visit to the Middle East comes as the region endures its most sustained and deadly period of conflict in decades in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 2023 and the Israeli military’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza. 

Arab leaders have been urging Washington to put more pressure on Israel to end its 19-month war in Gaza. 

Additional reporting by Raya Jalabi in Beirut and Sarah Dadouch in Damascus