Trump vows to lift US sanctions on Syria, expressing confidence in the country’s new leader

For the first time in a quarter-century, an American president has met face-to-face with the leader of Syria. President Donald Trump met with Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa for 30 minutes and called him “a real leader” with “a real shot at holding it together.”

During his visit to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Trump said that the US would lift its sanctions on Syria, an announcement that sent Syrians into the streets in celebration across the country.

The meeting between the two leaders is remarkable because al-Sharaa once fought side-by-side with al-Qaeda against US troops in Iraq, but this moment could be the start of a turning point for Syria. Trump says he’s hoping for a fresh start for the country.

“This is a second liberation,” Nada Shaheen, a resident of Homs, told the Associated Press. “The sanctions will be lifted. A revival is coming. The economic crisis is over.”

Trump’s decision to lift the sanctions came after talks with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Turkey, both regional heavyweights.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also met recently with the Syrian foreign minister, his counterpart, in Turkey.

This new normalization of relations is significant, given that Syria has been on the State Department’s list of sponsors of terrorism since 1979. The last US president to meet with a leader of Syria was President Bill Clinton, when he held talks with then-President Hafez al-Assad in 2000.

The late Syrian president’s son, Bashar al-Assad, ruled over the country up until last December, when he was ousted from power by rebels led by al-Sharaa. 

Al-Sharaa, formerly known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, was at one time the leader of Jabhat an-Nusra, a group that was affiliated with al-Qaeda, but later split from it.

Trump appeared to allude to al-Sharaa’s past, referring to him today as a “young, attractive guy” with a “very strong past.”

Trump expressed confidence in al-Sharaa as someone who could bring stability to his country and the region. And that’s a sentiment shared by several Gulf Arab states.

“In the past couple of weeks, the government of Saudi Arabia announced that it would settle all of the outstanding debt of Syria that Bashar al-Assad owes to international financial institutions,” said Dana Stroul with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. 

“The Qatari government announced that it would be paying the salaries of civil servants. All of this is going to give some breathing space to Mr. al-Sharaa in Damascus,” Stroul said.

But this newfound camaraderie may not sit well with Israel, which has been conducting air strikes inside Syria and taken control of parts of Syrian territory across the border from northern Israel.

Stroul says this presents a potentially dangerous situation for the United States.

“A NATO ally of the United States, Turkey, has aligned itself with the al-Sharaa government and is working in support of Damascus to consolidate security control over Syria at the very moment when another US ally, Israel, is taking actions that would weaken and undermine the authority of the government in Damascus,” Stroul explained.

A miscalculation, Stroul added, could lead to a situation where everyone loses.

Meanwhile, Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution says that the US has actually moved slowly and carefully in its engagement with Syria’s new government — for good reason — but that this moment does hold potential promise.

“This is a sort of rare opportunity for a positive transition in the Middle East, one that I think no one really contemplated was possible until fairly recently,” Maloney said. “And it does seem that there is more that the United States and the West can do. It’s certainly going to be a place, I think, where the Saudis, the Qataris and the Emiratis see a fairly significant role for their own diplomacy, as well as their own engagement economically.”

Today, President Trump arrived in Doha and met with Qatar’s emir.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said he and Trump are taking their partnership to “another level.” The two leaders signed deals to boost defense and trade ties.

The emir also mentioned other issues that he has high hopes for: Trump’s diplomatic efforts with Iran and an end to the war in Gaza.