Trump to relieve sanctions against Syria, to restore relationships with a new leader

Riad, Saudi Arabia (AP) – President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he would alleviate sanctions in Syria and normalize relationships with his new government in order to give the country an opportunity in peace.

Trump made the announcement shortly before he was supposed to meet in Saudi Arabia with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the former insurgent on Wednesday, who led the long-standing leader Bashar Assad last year. Trump said the efforts to approach the crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the Saudi ruler and the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“There is a new government that will hopefully be successful,” said Trump about Syria and added: “I say, good luck, Syria. Show us something special.”

The developments were a big thrust for the Syrian President, who had been detained in Iraq because of his role in the uprising after the invasion of the Arab country in 2003. Al-Sharaa was appointed President of Syria in January, one month after an impressive offensive of insurgent groups under the direction of al-Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-ShamOr HTS that stormed Damascus and end the Assad family's 54-year rule.

The United States has dealt with Al-Sharaa with Al-Sharaa since its power in December. The leaders of the Golf gathered behind the new government in Damascus and want Trump to follow because they believed that it was a bulwark against the Iranian return to the influence in Syria, where she had presented Assad's government during a Dekadelong Citizens' War.

Back then President Joe biden Left the decision Trump, whose administration has not yet formally recognized the new Syrian government. The sanctions that Damascus have imposed as part of Assad also remain.

Before Trump spoke, the White House said that he “agreed to say hello to the Syrian president in Saudi Arabia”.

The comments marked a striking change in the sound of Trump and made it contradictory to the long-time US allies Israel, which was deeply skeptical of al-Sharaa's extremist past and warned of a quick recognition of the new government.

Al-Sharaa, formerly from the Nom de Guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, entered the ranks of al-Qaaida impacts that fought against the US armed forces in Iraq after the invasion of the USA, and still looks like an arrest against his arrest for terrorism in Iraq. The United States once offered $ 10 million for information about its whereabouts because it left to al-Qaida left.

Al-Sharaa returned to his home country after the conflict began in 2011 and led Al-Qaida's branch, which was previously known as a Nusra front. He later changed the name of his group in Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and cut connections with al-Qaida.

He will be the first Syrian leader to meet an American president since Hafez Assad Bill Clinton scored in Geneva in 2000.

Syria has had relationships with Washington in the past since the days of the Cold War, when Damascus had close connections to the Soviet Union and later became the Iranian ally in the Arab world. The removal of the Assad family could change the route.

Ibrahim Hamidi, a Syrian analyst based in London, said Trump's planned meeting with Al-Sharaa marks a “strategic change” for the country.

“The Syrian-American meetings in Riad open the gate for the two sides to discuss questions of disagreement between them in a positive atmosphere,” said Hamidi, editor-in-chief of the Arab magazine Al Majalla. “This is important.”