Trump's meeting with Sharaa, which is unthinkable only months ago, strengthens the hopes of the Syrian

Donald Trump said that his administration is now researching the possibility of normalizing relationships with Syria's comments shortly after he met the preliminary president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose armed forces ended the Assad's decades of dictatorship.

The extraordinary encounter, which was unthinkable months ago, was short but significant.

“I think he has the potential,” Trump noticed after his meeting in Riad, for 37 minutes, to the former Syrian fighter, who was previously connected to Al-Qaida.

The 10 million dollars on his head were only lifted in December.

Video recordings of her conversation in a lavish Saudi royal palace showed an initial awkwardness when they spoke through a translator.

A radiant Saudi crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, sat next to them. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined them by phone.

Trump admitted that it was these two leaders who had convinced him to also raise the Syria sanctions of the United States.

His sudden announcement on Tuesday evening in a large US Saudi Investment Forum in Riad brought him standing ovation. After its many previous contributions on social media, it was a VOLTE face that the United States was “no interest in Syria”.

“Hard guy, very strong past,” Trump later described Sharaa for journalists who travel with his powerful American delegation on his first official four -day tour.

It was a very trump gloss over Sharaa's old links to al-Qaida. His Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was Al-Qaida's subsidiary in Syria until he stopped relationships in 2016.

Since the takeover of power in December, Sharaa has wore western business suits and has tried to present himself as president for all Syrians.

“It is a new light at the end of this tunnel,” said Hind Kabawat, Minister of Social Affairs and Work, in the interim government.

She told BBC's newshour program that she had called for facilitating the sanctions since her “day of liberation”.

The US decision triggered celebrations in a district in which 90% of Syrians are supposed to live in poverty after more than a decade of civil war and profound suffering.

Removing restrictions that cut Syria from the international financial system enable greater commitment from aid organizations and promote foreign investments and trade.

“We are North Korea of ​​the Middle East,” said a hotel receptionist in Damascus last December when I asked for another electronic hotel key.

He complained in tears that “we don't have enough cards, we lack everything”.

It can also help convince some of the millions of Syrians who live in exile in order to think more seriously about returning home. And it could help a young government to pay for salaries, to rebuild and to tackle the growing dissatisfaction with the delivery of everyday life.

The breakdown of the huge sanction network, which now strangles Syria, will take time.

“Some sanctions can be removed immediately using the President's exemptions,” commented Dina Esfandialy from Bloomberg Economics.

“But picking up the multi-layered sanctions will not be easy and require a real commitment of the Trump administration.”

I remember how I traveled to Tehran after the Iranian nuclear agreement from 2015 and the commitment of the Obama government to alleviate sanctions there.

At the press conference with the high representative of the EU for the EU's foreign policy, the Iranian journalists still asked with palpable fear, why it was even impossible to open a bank account.

Syria's new friends, including regional forces such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, who are now positioning themselves to shape the new Syria, must ensure that Trump and his team remain interested.

But he made it clear that he was expecting something for it if there is supposed to be complete normalization of relationships. The first point on his list is “Enter the Abraham Agreement”.

The US President considers this normalization process with Israel, to which several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, have joined one of his foreign policy achievements during his first term.

Sharaa, who was pragmatically praised by his friends, has already signaled that he understands how important it is to build up a work relationship with his neighbor, although Israel continues to bomb, which it calls “terrorist goals” – air bases, military installations and weapon spots – insist that they “fall in the wrong hands”.

Last month, the Syrian leader reported reported to a visiting US Congressman, Cory Mills, that Syria was willing to normalize relationships with Israel and to connect the Abraham Agreement under “the right conditions”.

The Israeli media have reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked President Trump not to collect sanctions. He remains suspicious of Sharaa and his HTS armed forces, as well as other groups to which foreign fighters belong to their ranks.

Removing foreign fighters is another requirements in Washington; It is one of the many challenges to whom the leader Syria faces.

President Trump found this moment as a “chance of size”. Millions of Syrians welcome only a greater chance that their lives will finally change for the better.