President Trump said Tuesday he will move to normalize relations and lift sanctions on Syria’s new government to give the country “a chance at peace.”
Mr. Trump was set to meet Wednesday in Saudi Arabia with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the onetime insurgent who last year led the overthrow of former leader Bashar Assad. He said the effort at rapprochement came at the urging of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi de facto ruler, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“There is a new government that will hopefully succeed,” Mr. Trump said of Syria, adding, “I say good luck, Syria. Show us something special.”
The developments were a major boost for the Syrian president who at one point was imprisoned in Iraq for his role in the insurgency following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of the Arab country. Al-Sharaa was named president of Syria in January, a month after a stunning offensive by insurgent groups led by al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS that stormed Damascus ending the 54-year rule of the Assad family.
The U.S. has been weighing how to handle al-Sharaa since he took power in December. Gulf leaders, have rallied behind the new government in Damascus and will want Mr. Trump to follow, believing it is a bulwark against Iran’s return to influence in Syria, where it had helped prop up Assad’s government during a decade-long civil war.
Then-President Joe Biden left the decision to Mr. Trump, whose administration has yet to formally recognize the new Syrian government. Sanctions imposed on Damascus under Assad also remain in place.
“The President agreed to say hello to the Syrian President while in Saudi Arabia tomorrow,” the White House said before Mr. Trump’s remarks.
The comments marked a striking change in tone from Mr. Trump and put him at odds with longtime U.S. ally Israel, which has been deeply skeptical of Al-Sharaa’s extremist past and cautioned against swift recognition of the new government.
Formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa joined the ranks of al Qaeda insurgents battling U.S. forces in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and still faces a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges in Iraq.
Al-Sharaa, whom the U.S. once offered $10 million for information about his whereabouts because of his links to al-Qaida, came back to his home country after the conflict began in 2011 where he led al-Qaida’s branch that used to be known as the Nusra Front. He later changed the name of his group to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and cut links with al-Qaida.
Al-Sharaa is set to become the first Syrian leader to meet an American president since the late Hafez Assad met Bill Clinton in Geneva in 2000.
Mr. Trump was in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for the first stop of his four-day trip to the Middle East. The trip is Mr. Trump’s first of his second term and later this week, he will travel to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
The president delivered remarks at a U.S.-Saudi investment summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital, as the White House announced a $600 billion investment from Saudi Arabia, including what it touted as the “largest defense sales agreement in history.”