Trump meets Syria’s president after lifting US sanctions on country

Donald Trump has met Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Saudi Arabia and said that Washington is exploring normalising ties with Syria, a day after an announcement that all US sanctions on Syria would be lifted.

The US president met Sharaa, a former militant who fought against US forces in Iraq, before a conference of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), part of Trump’s four-day visit to the Middle East, where he is expected to court Gulf allies for investments in the US. Trump is due to land in Doha next, where he will meet the Qatari leader, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

Pictures showed the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, sitting in the room as Trump and Sharaa met in Riyadh, flanked by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the Syrian foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, joined the meeting by telephone, according to the Turkish Anadolu news agency.

According to a White House spokesperson, Trump urged Sharaa to “deport Palestinian terrorists” and become a signatory to the Abraham accords, which would normalise Syrian ties with Israel. He also urged Sharaa to help the US in its mission to fight Islamic State and deal with the country’s remaining chemical weapons stock.

“[I am] ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria to give them a fresh start,” Trump told the GCC after his meeting with Sharaa. “It gives them a chance for greatness. The sanctions were really crippling, very powerful.”

The meeting was remarkable as the Trump administration had previously been wary of engaging with Sharaa, a former leader of the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Sharaa had previously led the Syrian wing of al-Qaida and fought against American forces in Iraq, where he spent five years in a US prison.

The meeting seemed to be a blueprint for further US-Syria cooperation, and would be followed up by discussions between Rubio and his Syrian counterpart, according to a Syrian foreign ministry statement.

The meeting was the culmination of months of diplomacy by the Syrians, as well as their Turkish and Saudi allies, who believed face time with Trump would help end Syria’s international isolation.

Damascus had prepared a pitch to Trump that included access to Syrian oil, reassurances of Israel’s security and a proposal to build a Trump tower in Damascus.

A meeting with Trump was seen as a key step towards recognition of the legitimacy of the new authority in Damascus after Bashar al-Assad was ousted as Syria’s president in December. It will further help consolidate the control of the new regime in Damascus, which has struggled to extend its authority over the patchwork of militias that still govern parts of war-torn Syria.

Though sanctions were originally imposed on Assad after his bloody crackdown on peaceful protesters in 2011, the US and other countries retained their economic embargo on Syria as they evaluated the new Islamist-led government in Damascus.

A key concern for the US in Syria is the protection of religious minorities. The Trump administration released a sharply worded statement urging Damascus to protect minorities after attacks by pro-Assad forces sparked revenge killings of nearly 900 mostly Alawite civilians in north-west Syria in March.

The US state department had handed the Syrians a 12-point list of conditions to end sanctions, which included protection of minorities and the US maintaining the right to conduct strikes against what it considered “terrorists” on Syrian soil. They were in the process of negotiating when Trump suddenly announced the lifting of US sanctions on Tuesday night.

“There’s a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilising the country and keeping peace,” Trump said in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday night. “I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness.”

The lifting of the sanctions came despite Israeli suspicions of the Islamist government in Damascus. Israel has said it will not allow government forces to deploy in southern Syria, and has carried out dozens of airstrikes across the country in recent months.

Saudi Arabia commended Trump’s move to lift sanctions, with Prince Mohammed praising the decision at the GCC summit in Riyadh.

The end of US sanctions will be a step towards reintegrating Syria into the international economic system and a boost to the battered economy trying to rebuild after 14 years of civil war.

In Damascus, the announcement of the end of sanctions was met with jubilation. Beeping cars waving Syrian flags filled the country’s capital on Tuesday. A traditional Syrian band played in the capital’s old quarter, the beats of the drums accompanied by whooping cheers.

Social media in Syria was filled with videos of Trump dancing, his signature double-fist pump set to Syrian anthems.

“Everyone is happy and in the streets. Thank God, a thousand times thank God,” said Omar al-Nafa, who works in education.

Syria’s economy is battered from 14 years of war, with the UN estimating more than 90% of the population lives in poverty. Much of the country’s housing stock is destroyed and basic services, such as electricity and internet, remain dysfunctional.

For months, the lifting of US sanctions was the policy priority for Syria’s new authorities, who saw it as a key obstacle for building a proper state and engaging in wide-scale reconstruction in the war-torn country.

The Syrian foreign ministry welcomed Trump’s announcement, calling it a “pivotal turning point for the Syrian people, as we seek to emerge from a long and painful chapter of war”.

“The removal of those 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.

Syria’s new government set ambitious goals to rebuild the country, but were hampered by severe economic sanctions.

Under US sanctions, Syria had no access to the international Swift banking system, and international businesses were reluctant to trade with the country for fear of falling foul of the US treasury.

“It will take some time for it to be actually implemented, but hopefully it will help the economy,” Nafa said.