Trump meets President Ahmed al-Shara, says US will lift sanctions on Syria in major policy shift
Trump's Middle East trip has fuelled doubts in Israel about where the country stands in Washington's priorities.
US President Donald Trump met with Syria's president in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and urged him to normalise ties with longtime foe Israel, after a surprise US announcement that it would lift all sanctions on the country.
Trump met Syria's Ahmed al-Shara before a summit between the United States and Gulf Arab countries.
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He urged Sharaa to join the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, which normalised relations with Israel under the US-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020, the White House press secretary posted on X.
Trump said he thought Syria would join at some point, according to a Washington Post pool report.
"I think they have to get themselves straightened up. I told him, 'I hope you’re going to join when it’s straightened out.’ He said, ‘Yes.’ But they have a lot of work to do," said Trump.
Photos posted on Saudi state television showed them shaking hands in the presence of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MbS.
Trump's Middle East trip has fuelled doubts in Israel about where the country stands in Washington's priorities.
The US exploring the possibility of normalising ties with Syria, one of Israel's biggest longstanding foes, and holding nuclear talks with its other enemy, Iran, has sidelined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies in the government.
Israel considers Iran's nuclear programme "an existential threat" and does not trust Syria's new president.
Despite concerns within sectors of his own administration over Syria's leaders' former ties to al Qaeda, Trump said on Tuesday he would lift sanctions on Syria in a major policy shift.
Israel remains deeply suspicious of Ahmed's administration, and Israeli officials have continued to describe him as a jihadist, though he severed ties with al Qaeda in 2016. The Israeli prime minister's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump, who said his Gulf region trip does not sideline Israel, told reporters that the fact he has relationships with countries in the Middle East is "very good for Israel".
He said the meeting with Ahmed, whom he described as a young, attractive guy with a very strong past, was "great".
"He's got a real shot at holding it together," said Trump.
Ahmed was for years the leader of al Qaeda's official wing in the Syrian conflict.
He first joined the group in Iraq, where he spent five years in a US prison. The United States removed a $10 million bounty on his head in December.
The US also hopes regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia will join the Abraham Accords, but discussions came to a halt after the Gaza war erupted, and the kingdom insists there can be no normalisation without Palestinian statehood.
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