US President Donald Trump met with interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, the first encounter between the two nations’ leaders in 25 years and one that could mark a turning point for Syria as it struggles to emerge from decades of international isolation.
The meeting, on the sidelines of Trump's get-together with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, marks a major turn of events for a Syria still adjusting to life after the over 50-year, iron-gripped rule of the Assad family, and for its new leader.
Trump praised Sharaa to reporters after the meeting on Air Force One, saying he was a “young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.”
“He’s got a real shot at holding it together,” Trump said. “He’s a real leader. He led a charge, and he’s pretty amazing.”
Trump had announced the day before as he kicked off his three-nation Middle East tour in Riyadh that he would also move to lift US sanctions imposed on Syria under the deposed autocrat Bashar al-Assad.
People across Syria cheered in the streets and set off fireworks on Tuesday night to celebrate, hopeful their nation — locked out of credit cards and global finance — might rejoin the world's economy when they need investments the most.
The meeting came even after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier asked Trump not to lift sanctions on Syria, again underscoring a growing discontent between the White House and the Israeli government as its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip rages on.
“I am ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria to give them a fresh start,” Trump told the Gulf Cooperation Council after his meeting with Sharaa. “It gives them a chance for greatness. The sanctions were really crippling, very powerful.”
Trump said Sharaa had agreed to join the Abraham Accords and eventually recognize Israel, but Syria hasn't confirmed that. Trump told reporters, “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.”
A historic closed-door meeting
Trump said on Tuesday that he would meet Sharaa, who had flown in to the Saudi capital for the face-to-face.
Even before its ruinous civil war that began in 2011, Syria struggled under a tightly controlled socialist economy and under sanctions by the US as a state-sponsor of terror since 1979.
The Trump-Sharaa meeting took place behind closed doors. The White House later said it ran for just over 30 minutes, making Sharaa the first Syrian leader to meet an American president since Hafez al-Assad met Bill Clinton in Geneva in 2000.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined the meeting between Trump, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister, and Sharaa via a phone call. Türkiye was a main backer to Sharaa and his opposition faction.
“I felt very strongly that this would give them a chance,” Trump said of Syria. “It’s not going to be easy anyway, so gives them a good strong chance. And, it was my honor to do so.”
What happened in the meeting? White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump urged Sharaa to diplomatically recognize Israel, “tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria” and help the US stop any resurgence of the ISIS group.
Trump, a Republican, also asked for the Syrian government to “assume responsibility” for over a dozen detention centers holding some 9,000 suspected members of the ISIS group, Leavitt added. The prisons are run by the US-backed and Kurdish-led forces that spearheaded the military campaign against the extremists and controlled the last sliver of land they once held in March 2019.
As part of a deal reached in March between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led forces, all border crossings with Iraq and Türkiye, airports and oil fields in the Northeast would be brought under the central government’s control by the end of the year.
Trump's desire for Syria to take over the prisons also signals the potential of a full American military withdrawal from Syria.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry said Trump and Sharaa discussed the Syrian-US partnership in fighting terror and armed groups such as ISIS standing in the way of stability.
Many Gulf Arab leaders have rallied behind the new government in Damascus and want Trump to follow, believing it is a bulwark against Iran’s return to influence in Syria, where it had helped prop up Assad’s government during a decadelong civil war.
Trump's move draws cheers from Syrians
Syrians cheered the announcement by Trump that the US will move to lift sanctions on the beleaguered nation.
The state-run SANA news agency published video and photographs of Syrians cheering in Umayyad Square, the largest in the country’s capital, Damascus. Others honked their car horns or waved the new Syrian flag in celebration.
People whistled and cheered as fireworks lit the night sky.
A statement from Syria’s Foreign Ministry called the announcement “a pivotal turning point for the Syrian people as we seek to emerge from a long and painful chapter of war.”
“The removal of these sanctions offers a vital opportunity for Syria to pursue stability, self-sufficiency and meaningful national reconstruction, led by and for the Syrian people,” the statement added.
