US President Donald Trump met on Wednesday Syria's interim President Ahmed Al Sharaa, the first such encounter between the two nations' leaders in 25 years.
The meeting, on the sidelines of a Trump get-together with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, marks a major turn of events for a Syria still adjusting to life after the over 50-year, iron-gripped rule of the Assad family.
People across Syria cheered in the streets and shot off fireworks on Tuesday night to celebrate, hopeful their nation locked out of credit cards and global finance might rejoin the world's economy when they need investment the most.
It's also remarkable given Al Sharaa, under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, had ties to Al Qaeda and joined insurgents battling US forces in Iraq before entering the Syrian war. He was even imprisoned by US troops in Iraq for several years.
The meeting is all the more notable because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked Trump not to lift sanctions on Syria.
The request came during Netanyahu's visit to Washington last month, according to an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the subject.
Israel was concerned a cross-border attack similar to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, assault, could come from Syria. Israel also fears Al Sharaa and his Islamist past could pose a threat on its northern border.
Trump, long a critic of America's once-called "forever wars" in the Mideast after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, also offered an anti-interventionist speech before the Saudi public also.
Trump on Tuesday announced the meeting, saying the US also would move to lift economic sanctions on Syria as well.
Meeting behind closed doors
Even before its ruinous civil war that began in 2011, Syria struggled under a tightly controlled socialist economy and under sanctions by the US as being a state-sponsor of terror since 1979.
The Trump-Al Sharaa meeting on Wednesday took place behind closed doors and reporters were not permitted to witness the engagement.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined the meeting between Trump, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and Al Sharaa via video conferencing, according to Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency. Turkey was a main backer to Al Sharaa and his rebel faction.
The White House later said the meeting ran for just over 30 minutes.
A chance at peace
Trump earlier said he was looking to give Syria, which is emerging from more than a decade of brutal civil war "a chance at peace" under Al Sharaa
Al Sharaa was named interim 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 United States has been weighing how to handle Al Sharaa since he took power in December.
Many Gulf Arab leaders have rallied behind the new government in Damascus and 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.
But longtime US ally Israel has been deeply sceptical of Al Sharaa's extremist past and cautioned against swift recognition of the new government. However, Trump cited the intervention of Saudi Prince Mohammed as key to his decision.
Syrians cheer Trump move on sanctions
The White House earlier signalled that the Trump and Al Sharaa engagement, on the sidelines of the GCC meeting in Riyadh convened as part of Trump's four-day visit to the region, would be brief, with the administration saying the US president had "agreed to say hello" to the Syrian president on Wednesday.
Prince Mohammed lauded Trump's decision on lifting sanction on Syria.
"We commend the decision made yesterday by President Trump to lift the sanctions on the brotherly Syrian Arab Republic, which will alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people," he said in a speech to the GCC.
Al Sharaa is the first Syrian leader to meet an American president since Hafez Assad met Bill Clinton in Geneva in 2000.
Syrians cheered the announcement by Trump that the US will move to lift sanctions on the beleaguered Middle Eastern nation.
The state-run SANA news agency published video and photographs of Syrians cheering in Umayyad Square, the largest in the country's capital, Damascus. Others honked their car horns or waved the new Syrian flag in celebration.
People whistled and cheered the news as fireworks lit the night sky.
A statement from Syria's Foreign Ministry issued on Tuesday night called the announcement "a pivotal turning point for the Syrian people as we seek to emerge from a long and painful chapter of war."
The statement also was careful to describe the sanctions as coming "in response to the war crimes committed by the Assad regime against the Syrian people," rather than the war-torn nation's new interim government.
"The removal of these sanctions offers a vital opportunity for Syria to pursue stability, self-sufficiency and meaningful national reconstruction, led by and for the Syrian people," the statement added.
Associated Press