RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (news agencies) — U.S. President Donald Trump met with interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, the first encounter between the two nations’ leaders in 25 years and one that could serve as a turning point for Syria as it struggles to emerge from decades of international isolation.
The meeting, on the sidelines of Trump’s get-together with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, marks a major turn of events for a Syria still adjusting to life after the over 50-year, iron-gripped rule of the Assad family, and for its new leader, who once had a $10 million U.S. bounty for his arrest.
Trump praised al-Sharaa to reporters after the meeting, saying he was a “young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.”
Under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa had ties to al-Qaida and joined insurgents battling U.S. forces in Iraq before entering the Syrian war. He was even imprisoned by U.S. troops there for several years.
“He’s got a real shot at holding it together,” Trump said. “He’s a real leader. He led a charge, and he’s pretty amazing.”
Trump had announced the day before as he kicked off his three-nation Middle East tour in Riyadh that he would also move to lift U.S. sanctions imposed on Syria under the deposed autocrat Bashar Assad.
People across Syria cheered in the streets and set off fireworks on Tuesday night to celebrate, hopeful their nation — locked out of credit cards and global finance — might rejoin the world’s economy when they need investments the most.
The meeting came even after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier asked Trump not to lift sanctions on Syria, again underscoring a growing discontent between the White House and the Israeli government as its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip rages on.
Trump told the Gulf Cooperation Council after his meeting with al-Sharaa that he was ending sanctions on Syria in order to give the country “a fresh start.”
“It gives them a chance for greatness. The sanctions were really crippling, very powerful,” Trump said.
Trump said al-Sharaa had agreed to join the Abraham Accords and eventually recognize Israel, but Syria hasn’t confirmed that. Trump told reporters, “I think they have to get themselves straightened up. I told him, ‘I hope you’re going to join when it’s straightened out.’ He said, ‘Yes.’ But they have a lot of work to do.”
Trump said on Tuesday that he would meet al-Sharaa, who flew in to the Saudi capital for the face-to-face.
Even before its ruinous civil war that began in 2011, Syria struggled under a tightly controlled socialist economy and under sanctions by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terror since 1979.
Al-Sharaa is the first Syrian leader to meet an American president since Hafez Assad met Bill Clinton in Geneva in 2000. The Trump-al-Sharaa meeting took place behind closed doors, and the White House later said it ran for just over 30 minutes.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined the meeting with Trump, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and al-Sharaa via phone. Turkey was a main backer to al-Sharaa and his rebel faction.
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