President Donald Trump met with Syria’s new leader, President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Wednesday morning during his trip to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The meeting lasted 33 minutes the White House said, but reporters were not allowed inside.
Trump appeared to be poised to meet with al-Sharaa on Tuesday, answering a question from the Daily Mail outside the Royal Court suggesting that he thought the meeting was happening.
The White House later confirmed that Trump and al-Sharaa would ‘say hello’ as the president was scheduled to meet members of the Gulf Cooperation Council Wednesday morning before jetting off to Doha, Qatar for the second leg of his three-state Middle East swing.
The Trump-al-Sharaa meeting comes after the president announced Tuesday evening that he would drop U.S. sanctions on Syria, leftover from the brutal Assad regime.
‘I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness,’ Trump told those attending the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum that the president was hosting alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.
‘Now is their time to shine,’ the president added.
President Donald Trump announced at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia that he would end all sanctions on Syria ‘to give them a chance at greatness’
The president revealed to the audience that MBS, as well as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had pressed Trump on the Syrian sanctions issue.
‘Oh, what I do for the crown prince,’ the president said with a laugh.
He received a standing ovation from the audience with the sanctions announcement.
Ahead of Trump’s trip al-Sharaa floated a number of things he’d be willing to do to get sanctions relief from the Americans.
He floated the idea of building a Trump Tower Damascus and said Syria would give the U.S. some of its oil.
al-Sharaa also said he’d be open to a detente with Israel, which has ramped up military operations in parts of Syria.
Syrian rebels toppled the regime of Bashar al-Assad in December, with al-Sharaa officially becoming the country’s president in January.
al-Sharaa is still on a U.S.-designated terror list as a former member of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa is still on a U.S. terror watchlist due to his previous participation in al-Qaeda in Iraq. He’s since renounced Islamic jihadism against western nations like the United States
In more recent times, the Syrian politician has renounced Islamic jihadism against western nations like the United States.
al-Sharaa was actually born in the same city where he will meet with Trump – Riyadh.
He came from a Syrian Sunni Muslim family and grew up in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
During the 2003 Iraq war, al-Sharaa left Syria and went to Iraq to fight as part of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
al-Sharaa was a rebel commander during the Syrian civil war.
His meeting with Trump marked the first time a U.S. president and Syrian head of state have greeted each other since the year 2000.
