The leader of Syria’s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that headed a lightning rebel offensive snatching Damascus from government control, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, addresses a crowd at the capital’s landmark Umayyad Mosque on December 8, 2024.
Abdulaziz Ketaz | Afp | Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump met with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia before heading to Qatar on Wednesday, the White House said, one day after Washington announced the lifting of U.S. sanctions on the war-ravaged country.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman oversaw the meeting, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined by phone.
“President Trump thanked President Erdogan and the Crown Prince for their friendship, and told President Al-Sharaa that he has a tremendous opportunity to do something historic in his country,” a readout from the White House said.
Trump “encouraged President al-Sharaa to do a great job for the Syrian people,” the readout said, and included a list of actions that the U.S. president urged al-Sharaa to take. These include signing onto the Abraham Accords with Israel, telling all foreign terrorists to leave Syria, deport Palestinian terrorists, helping the U.S. to prevent the resurgence of the Islamic State group and assuming responsibility for the latter’s detention centers in northeast Syria.
Syria has been designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. government since 1979. U.S. sanctions were imposed on the country in 2004 and again in 2011, after the regime of then-President Bashar Assad launched a brutal crackdown on anti-government uprisings. In the roughly 14 years since, the country has been devastated by civil war, sectarian violence and brutal terrorists attacks
The toppling of the Assad regime during a shock offensive by anti-Assad militia groups in December last year stunned the global community and brought about the prospect of a new beginning for the devastated country. Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa — a former al-Qaeda member who describes himself as reformed — currently leads the country’s transitional government.
Saudi Arabia and Turkey played a key role in convincing Trump to lift sanctions on Syria and meet with Al-Sharaa, White House officials said. In recent years, a greater number of Arab and Muslim countries have called for efforts to re-integrate Syria into the Arab fold, even before Assad was ousted.
“I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness,” Trump told a packed auditorium at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in Riyadh on Tuesday, during the first appearance of his four-day visit to the Middle East.
“In Syria, which has seen so much misery and death, there is a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace. That’s what we want to see,” the American president said to applause from the audience.