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President Donald Trump has with the new president of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh and urged him to normalize the ties with Israel, a day after announcing that the United States would sanction the country and consider restoring relations.
The measure marks a dramatic softening of Washington’s position towards Syria after Sharaa’s Islamist movement led a rebel offensive that knocked down the dictator Bashar al-Assad and ended the dynastic rule of more than 50 years of his family about the Arab state.
Trump said after the meeting that he had become “great,” and added that Sharaa was a “young and attractive guy. Hard. Strong strong. Very strong adjustment. Fighter.”
The images in the Saudi state media showed the couple trembling their hands, with Sharaa even breaking a rare smile, next to the Saudi heir prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
The three leaders then sitting around a speaker when the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, joined the meeting on the phone. Also attended by officials from the three countries, including foreign ministers.
Sharaa thanked Trump, saying that the decision to raise sanctions “would open a new chapter that allows the reconstruction of Syria, the rebirth of its economy and contributes to achieving security and stability within it,” according to the Saudi press agency.
Trump said his decision to lift the sanctions, announced for the first time the night before in a United Saudi-State investment forum, occurred after consulting the heir prince and Erdogan to give the Syrians a “new beginning.”
He told a gulf leaders meeting in the Saudi capital that Washington was “currently exploring normalization relations with the new Syrian government.”
Trump said the way to follow for Syria “was not going to be easy anyway,” but that I firmly felt that eliminating the sanctions would give them a better chance of success and “they were my honors to do it.”
“He has a real opportunity to keep him together,” Trump said about Sharaa after his meeting. “I talked to President Erdogan, who is very friendly with him. He feels he had a chance to do a good job. It’s a torn country.”
The White House said Trump encouraged Sharaa to sign Abraham’s agreements with Israel, negotiated in Trump’s first mandate, which led the EAU and three other Arab states formalize relations with Israel in 2020.
He also urged the Syrian leader to deport “Palestinian terrorists”, to help the United States prevent the resurgence of ISIS and assume responsibility for ISIS detention centers in the northeast of controlling Kurdish.
Trump said he thought Syria would join Abraham’s agreements at some point. “I think they have to straighten. I said:” I hope you join when it’s direct. “He said:” Yes. “But they have a lot of work to do.”
Washington’s decision to raise the sanctions will boost the Sharaa while fighting to consolidate the control of its administration over the fragmented nation.
After Trump’s announcement, many Syrians touch the streets of the capital, Damascus, who touch the horn of his car in celebration.
The Syrians and the Arab states have urged the Western powers to lift all the sanctions of the Assad era to the country and have warned that reviving the economy in bankruptcy is the most challenging task facing the Transition Government of Sharaa.
The Syrian leader and his Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham movement, which dominates the new government and security forces, are terrorists designated by the United States because or affiliation with Al-Qaeda.
But Sharaa resigned from his ties with Al-Qaeda in 2016 and has presented that his government will be inclusive and will respect all the sections and minorities of Syria.
The United Kingdom and the EU have raised some sanctions, while the United States has issued exemptions to allow the trade of 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.
It is likely that the measure angry with Israel, who has deployed troops in Syria, confiscated territory in the south of the country and repeatedly launched air strikes against Syrian military facilities. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has repeatedly described the Sharaa government as a “jihadist regime.”
Trump’s visit to the Middle East occurs when the region supports its most sustained and mortal conflict period in decades following Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023 and the retaliation offensive of the Israeli army in Gaza.
Arab leaders have urged Washington to exert more pressure on Israel to end their 19 months in Gaza.
Additional Raya Jalabi reports in Beirut and Sarah Dadauch in Damascus
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