US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he would move to normalize relations and raise sanctions on Syria A new government to give to the country “a chance of peace”.
Trump was to meet on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia with the Syrian president Ahmad al-SharaaThe insurg of time which led last year the overthrow of the former leader Bashar Assad. He said the rapprochement effort had come at the request of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the de facto Saudi sovereign and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“There is a new government which, we hope, will succeed,” said Trump about Syria, adding: “I say good luck, Syria. Show us something special.”
The developments were a major boost for the Syrian president who, at some point, was imprisoned in Iraq for his role in the insurrection after the invasion of the Arab country led by the United States in 2003.
Al-Sharaa was appointed president of Syria in January, a month after a superb offensive of insurgent groups led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham d’Al-Sharaa or HTS who stormed Damascus ending the 54-year rule of the Assad family.
The United States weighs how to manage Al-Sharaa since it took power in December. Gulf leaders joined the new government in Damascus and Trump, believing that it was a rampart against Iran’s return to influence in Syria, where it had helped support the government of Assad for a decade of civil war.
The president of the time, Joe Biden, left the decision to Trump, whose administration has not yet officially recognized the new Syrian government. The sanctions imposed in Damascus under Assad also remain in place.
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“The president agreed to say hello to the Syrian president when he was in Saudi Arabia tomorrow,” said the White House before Trump’s remarks.
The comments marked a change in your striking of Trump and put it in contradiction with the long-standing ally of Israel, who was deeply skeptical about the extremist past of Al-Sharaa and was warned against the rapid recognition of the new government.
Formerly known with the name of war Abu Mohammed al-Golani, Al-Sharaa joined the ranks of the insurgents of Al-Qaida who are fighting against the American forces in Iraq after the invasion led by the United States in 2003 and always confer on a mandate for its arrest for accusations of terrorism in Iraq.
Al-Sharaa, that the United States offered $ 10 million for information on its fate due to its links with Al-Qaida, returned to its country of origin after the start of the conflict in 2011 where it led the Al-Qaida branch which was known as the Nusra front. He then changed the name of his group to Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) and cut links with Al-Qaida.
Al-Sharaa should become the first Syrian leader to meet an American president since the late Hafez Assad met Bill Clinton in Geneva in 2000.
Syria had historically defeated relations with Washington since the Cold War when Damascus had close ties with the Soviet Union and later, when Syria became the ally closest to Iran in the Arab world. The deletion of the Assad family could change the track.
Syrian analyst based in London, Ibrahim Hamidi, said that Trump’s meeting with Al-Sharaa marks the country’s “strategic change” with Iran forced to leave and Russia, who also supported Assad and now gives him a weakened sanctuary.
“Syrian-American meetings in Riyadh open the door of both parties to start discussing problems with disagreements with an atmosphere of dialogue,” said Hamidi editor of the Arab magazine Al Majalla. “It’s important.”
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press