Trump Meets New Syrian Leader After Announcing End of Sanctions
President is on a four-day tour of the Middle East, seeking investments in the U.S. and geopolitical deals
Key Points
Trump has also sealed $300 billion in deals with the Saudis and issued an ultimatum to Iran regarding its nuclear program.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—President Trump met Syria’s new president on the sidelines of a regional summit here after announcing that he would lift crippling economic sanctions on the war-torn country and signing a bevy of Saudi investment deals on the first day of his Middle East tour.
The encounter—which a U.S. official said got under way around 10 a.m. local time—is likely to mark a turning point in global acceptance of Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, an Islamist formerly aligned with Islamic State in Iraq and al Qaeda who is still designated by Washington as a terrorist. He came to power after leading the ouster of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad in December.
A U.S. spokesman said it was the first meeting between the presidents of the U.S. and Syria in 25 years. The White House said the meeting lasted 33 minutes.
Trump’s surprise decision on sanctions contributes to scrambling the geopolitics in the Middle East, where in the past year Israel has been on the ascendancy militarily at the cost of Iran. A more lenient U.S. policy on Syria goes against Israel’s approach, the latest in a series of moves that sidelined or surprised the Israelis, including on Gaza, Iran and the Houthis.
Sharaa has been trying to win U.S. support to rebuild Syria after more than a decade of civil war, reaching out through intermediaries to Israel and signaling willingness to let U.S. oil-and-gas companies work in the country. He wants to share with Trump his vision of a Marshall Plan-style reconstruction in which American and other Western companies would win out over China and other powers, according to Syrian government officials.
Trump said Tuesday evening in Riyadh that he had decided to lift all sanctions Washington had imposed on Syria over the past decade in a bid to weaken the Assad regime after discussing it with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who have backed Sharaa.
The announcement received a standing ovation from the Saudi crown prince and the audience at a packed U.S.-Saudi business forum in Riyadh where Trump spoke for about 50 minutes and received repeated applause after touring models of the kingdom’s mega property development projects. The address sometimes felt like a domestic campaign speech, starting with a recording of country music artist Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.,” veering into immigration and trade policy and ending with the “YMCA” song.
Syrians and others across the Arab world celebrated Trump’s announcement, with many also praising the Saudi crown prince for intervening with Trump on their behalf.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said Erdogan had participated virtually in the conversation on Wednesday, which Mohammed also participated in.
The decision to lift sanctions came at the end of a day in which Trump was feted by the de facto Saudi ruler, Mohammed, whom he praised for transforming the desert kingdom in the eight years since his last presidential visit. Trump sealed $300 billion in deals with the Saudis, with an eye toward doubling that total within four years.
He issued an ultimatum to Iran: make a decision soon about giving up the pursuit of a nuclear weapon or face a renewed campaign of “massive maximum pressure.”
That approach to Iran is likely to be showcased when he addresses a gathering of Arab kings and emirs flying into Riyadh from across the Gulf. He is expected to urge cooperation among the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, all of which are U.S. partners or allies but have varying relations with Tehran.
Trump is touring a Middle East transformed by nearly two years of war after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel, which responded with a military campaign in Gaza that killed tens of thousands of people. Another Israeli war last year against Hezbollah, the collapse of Syria’s longtime dictator and two direct exchanges of fire between Israel and Iran left Tehran greatly weakened.
Trump’s trip also brings the president to the shores across from Iran just as his administration is engaged in diplomatic efforts to curb Tehran’s nuclear program. A fourth round of talks between U.S. and Iranian officials on Sunday failed to make clear progress.
On Wednesday afternoon, he will fly to Doha for talks with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. The discussion will include energy and investments but likely focus more on foreign policy. The Qataris helped strike a deal during the first Trump administration to end the U.S. war in Afghanistan and are key mediators in releasing the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and ending Israel’s war there.
Trump is facing new scrutiny over the administration’s talks with Doha about accepting a luxury Qatari plane as the new Air Force One.
The new policy and the meeting with Sharaa are unlikely to go down well with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who doesn’t trust the Syrian leader’s renunciation of his radical past and promises to run an inclusive government.
Since Assad’s fall, the Israeli military has bombed Syrian military sites and seized swaths of Syrian territory along the border, with Netanyahu demanding that Syrian forces be barred from the country’s south. Some U.S. and Israeli officials were hoping to wrest significant concessions from Sharaa in return for sanctions relief.
While Trump will be a quick flight from Israel, he isn’t scheduled to stop there, a glaring miss amid rising tensions with Netanyahu over Iran, persistent Houthi aggressions from Yemen and Gaza’s fate.
The U.S. president has struggled to broker a cease-fire and hostage-release deal in Gaza, which Riyadh wants before talking about normalizing relations with Israel. But Trump did succeed in getting Hamas on Monday to release the last living American hostage, Edan Alexander.Write to Stephen Kalin at stephen.kalin@wsj.com
President Trump met Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, after announcing the U.S. would lift sanctions on the country during his Middle East tour.
The meeting is likely to mark a turning point in global acceptance of Syria’s leader.