President Trump, at the invitation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa.
By:MOHAMED DUALE
RIYADH, May 14, U.S. President Donald Trump met Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Riyadh on Wednesday, the first such meeting between the two leaders, as Washington signals a shift in its Middle East strategy.
The meeting, held at the invitation of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was also joined remotely by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to a statement by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
President Trump praised the meeting as a “historic opportunity” and confirmed the U.S. would lift longstanding sanctions on Syria, describing them as “brutal and crippling.” Erdogan welcomed the move and pledged Turkey’s cooperation with Saudi Arabia to promote peace and stability in Syria.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also applauded Trump’s decision to ease sanctions, calling it courageous and timely.
During the meeting, Trump laid out five key expectations for Syria’s leadership, including joining the Abraham Accords to normalize ties with Israel, expelling foreign terrorist groups, deporting Palestinian militants, taking control of ISIS detention facilities in northeast Syria, and cooperating with the U.S. to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State.
Al-Sharaa thanked the three leaders and expressed willingness to collaborate on counterterrorism and chemical weapons elimination. He also noted what he called a “new opportunity” resulting from the withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syrian territory.
The Syrian president reaffirmed Damascus’s commitment to the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel and invited American companies to invest in Syria’s oil and gas sector, stating his goal to position Syria as a strategic trade corridor between East and West.
The ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza were also discussed, though no further details were released.
Trump is on a regional tour of the Gulf, with additional stops expected in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
