Trump lifts sanctions on Syria, wishing the new government “good luck” – National
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he would adopt normal relations and lift sanctions on the new Syrian government, giving the country a “opportunity to peace.”
Trump will meet in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led the overthrow of former leader Bashar Assad last year. He said the efforts to reconciliation were at the urging of Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi de Facto De ruler and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“There is a new administration that is expected to succeed. Syria, I say good luck. Show us something special.”
These developments are a major driving force for the Syrian president, who was imprisoned in Iraq in 2003 as a US-led invasion of Arab countries.
Al-Sharaa was appointed president of Syria in January, a month after a stunning offensive by the rebel group led by Al-Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS, which attacked Damascus, ending the 54-year rule of the Assad family.
Since taking office in December, the United States has been weighing how to deal with al-Sharaa. Gulf leaders rally behind the new government in Damascus and hope Trump follows it as a bastion of opposition to Iran’s return to Syria’s influence, where it helped the Assad administration in a decade-long civil war.
The government that President Joe Biden would decide has not officially recognized the new Syrian government. The sanctions imposed on Damascus under Assad's leadership also remain.
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“The president agreed to say hello to the Syrian president when he was in Saudi Arabia,” the White House said before Trump's speech.
The comments marked a surprising change in Trump's tone and made him contradict Israel, a longtime American ally, deeply doubted the al-Sharaa extremists and warned of a reluctance to quickly acknowledge his endorsement of the new administration.
Al-Sharaa, formerly known as Nom de Guerre Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, joined the Al Qaeda rebels in Iraq after a 2003 U.S.-led invasion and is still facing a warrant for arresting him on terrorism charges in Iraq.
Al-Sharaa, who once provided $10 million to the United States for his connection to Al-Qaeda, returned to his homeland after he began the conflict in 2011, led the Al-Qaeda branch, once known as Nusra Front. Later, he changed the name of his group to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and truncated contact with Al Qaeda.
Al-Sharaa will be the first Syrian leader to meet with the U.S. president since the late Hafez Assad met with Bill Clinton in 2000.
Syria has established close ties with the Soviet Union since the Cold War era, and Syria has been building relations with Washington in history since Syria and Syria became Iran’s closest ally in the Arab world. The removal of the Assad family can change the track.
Ibrahim Hamidi, a London-based Syrian analyst, said Trump's meeting with Al-Sharaa marks a “strategic shift” in the country that Iran was forced to leave and Russia, which also supports Assad, which now gives him a shelter, weakening his shelter.
“The Syrian American Conference in Riyadh is the atmosphere of the conversation between the two sides starting to discuss the issues of differences and dialogue between them,” said Al Al Majalla, editor-in-chief of the Hamidi Arab magazine. “It's important.”
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