U.S. President Donald 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.”
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,” 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 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 Trump, whose administration has yet to formally recognize the new Syrian government. Sanctions imposed on Damascus under Assad also remain in place.
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“The President agreed to say hello to the Syrian President while in Saudi Arabia tomorrow,” the White House said before Trump’s remarks.
The comments marked a striking change in tone from 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-Qaida 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.
Syria historically had fraught relations with Washington since the days of the Cold War when Damascus had close links with the Soviet Union and later when Syria became Iran’s closest ally in the Arab world. The removal of the Assad family could change the track.
London-based Syrian analyst Ibrahim Hamidi said Trump’s meeting with al-Sharaa marks “strategic shift” in country with Iran forced to leave and Russia, which also backed Assad and now gives him sanctuary, weakened.
“The Syrian-American meetings in Riyadh open the gate for the two sides to start discussing disagreements issues between them with an atmosphere of dialogue,” said Hamidi editor-in-chief of Arab magazine Al Majalla. “This is important.”
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