Riyadh: President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will move to normalise 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 US-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 US 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 recognise 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 Trump’s remarks.
The comments marked a striking change in tone from Trump, who had until now been deeply sceptical of Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
Formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa joined the ranks of al-Qaida insurgents battling US forces in Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003 and still faces a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges in Iraq.
Al-Sharaa, whom the US once offered USD 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.
