Trump meets Syria's former-insurgent-turned-leader in Saudi Arabia
It is also remarkable given that Mr al-Sharaa, under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has ties to al Qaida and joined insurgents battling US forces in Iraq before entering the Syrian war.
It comes after Mr Trump, long a critic of America's once-called 'forever wars' in the Middle East after the September 11 2001 attacks, offered an anti-interventionist speech before the Saudi public as well.
Mr Trump on Tuesday announced the meeting, saying the US would also move to lift economic sanctions on Syria.
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 meeting took place behind closed doors and reporters were not permitted to witness the engagement.
The White House did not immediately say who else was in the meeting or provide any other details on the conversation.
Mr Trump said he was looking to give Syria, which is emerging from more than a decade of brutal civil war, 'a chance at peace' under Mr al-Sharaa.
Mr al-Sharaa was named interim president of Syria in January, a month after a stunning offensive by insurgent groups led by Mr al-Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that stormed Damascus, ending the 54-year rule of the Assad family.
The United States has been weighing how to handle Mr al-Sharaa since he took power in December.
Many Gulf Arab leaders have rallied behind the new government in Damascus and want Mr Trump to follow, believing it is a bulwark against Iran's return to influence in Syria, where it had helped prop up Bashar Assad's government during a decade-long civil war.
But longtime US ally Israel has been deeply sceptical of Mr al-Sharaa's extremist past and cautioned against swift recognition of the new government.
However, Mr Trump cited the intervention of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as key to his decision.
The White House earlier signalled that the Trump and al-Sharaa engagement, on the sidelines of a Gulf Co-operation Council meeting in Riyadh convened as part of Mr 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.
Mr 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 Mr 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 was also 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.
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Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
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The Guardian
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