Trump Meets Syrian President, Urges him to Establish Ties with Israel
RIYADH, Reuters: U.S. President Donald Trump met with Syria’s president in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and urged him to normalise ties with longtime foe Israel, after a surprise U.S. announcement that it would lift all sanctions on the Islamist-led government.
Trump met Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa before a summit between the United States and Gulf Arab countries. Photos posted on Saudi state television showed them shaking hands in the presence of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MbS.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan joined Trump and MbS virtually in the meeting, Turkey’s Anadolu News Agency reported.
Trump urged Sharaa to join the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, which normalised relations with Israel under the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020, the White House press secretary posted on X.
The United States also hopes Saudi Arabia will join the Abraham Accords. Discussions on the issue came to a halt after the Gaza war erupted and the kingdom insists there can be no normalisation without Palestinian statehood.
Trump said on Tuesday Saudi Arabia would join the accords in its own time.
Despite concerns within sectors of his administration over Syria’s leaders’ former ties to Al Qaeda, Trump said on Tuesday during a speech in Riyadh he would lift sanctions on Syria in a major policy shift.
He also said Washington was exploring normalising relations with Syria’s government beginning with his meeting with Sharaa.
BOOST FOR SYRIA’S NEW LEADERS
The lifting of sanctions came despite deep Israeli suspicion of Sharaa’s administration, worries initially shared by some U.S. officials. Israeli officials have continued to describe Sharaa as a jihadist, though he severed ties with al Qaeda in 2016. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The decision is a major boost for Sharaa, who has been struggling to bring the country under the control of the Damascus government after toppling former President Bashar al-Assad in December.
Removing U.S. sanctions that cut Syria off from the global financial system will clear the way for greater engagement by humanitarian organizations working in Syria, easing foreign investment and trade as the country rebuilds.
U.S. ally Israel has opposed sanctions relief for Syria and has escalated its military operations since Assad was toppled, saying it will not tolerate an Islamist presence in southern Syria.
Israel has seized ground in the southwest of the country, warned the Syrian government against deploying forces there, and blown up much of the Syrian military’s heavy weapons and equipment in the days after Assad fell.
The challenges facing Syria’s new government were also laid bare in March when Assad loyalists attacked government forces, prompting revenge attacks in which Islamist gunmen killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite minority, drawing strong U.S. condemnation.
Sharaa was for years the leader of al Qaeda’s official wing in the Syrian conflict. He first joined the group in Iraq, where he spent five years in a U.S. prison. The United States removed a $10 million bounty on Sharaa’s head in December.
The Syrian foreign minister said in a statement on Wednesday that the meeting between Trump and Sharaa included discussions about combating terrorism and cooperation in eliminating the influence of non-state actors and armed groups that threaten Syrian stability, including ISIS.
This meeting will be followed by another between the Syrian foreign minister and his U.S. counterpart Marco Rubio.
BUSINESS DEALS
Trump’s first day of a four-day swing through the Gulf region was marked by lavish ceremony and business deals, including a $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the U.S. and $142 billion in U.S. arms sales to the kingdom.
Later on Wednesday, Trump will fly to the Qatari capital Doha, where he will participate in a state visit with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and other officials. Qatar, a key U.S. ally, is expected to announce hundreds of billions of dollars in investments in the U.S.
Trump’s visit to Doha was to follow the White House’s announcement this week that it plans to accept a Boeing 747-8 plane, which would be outfitted to serve as Air Force One, as a gift from the Qataris.
The luxury plane, which would be one of the most valuable gifts ever received by the U.S. government, would eventually be donated to Trump’s presidential library. It has sparked outrage from Democrats and bipartisan security concerns. Some officials have said it could create a perception of corruption, even absent a quid pro quo.
While the precise details of the investments Qatar plans to announce on Wednesday were unclear, Qatar Airways was expected to announce a deal to buy around 100 widebody jets from Boeing, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Following his visit to Qatar, Trump will fly to Abu Dhabi to meet the UAE’s leaders on Thursday. He is then slated to fly back to Washington on Friday, but he has said he could fly to Turkey instead for a potential meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.