Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: President Donald Trump will meet with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, who led the overthrow of former leader Bashar Assad last year.
“Tomorrow in Saudi Arabia, the president agrees to say hello to the Syrian president.” The White House said, “Since taking office in December, the United States has been weighing how to deal with al-Sharaa. Gulf leaders rally behind the new government in Damascus and hope Trump follows it as a bastion of influence against Iran’s return to Syria, where it helped Assad’s administration in a decade-long civil war.
The government that President Joe Biden would decide has not officially recognized the new Syrian government. The sanctions imposed on Damascus under Assad’s leadership also remain.
In a speech in Riyadh on Tuesday night, Trump is expected to say that “we all hope” that the al-Sharaa administration “will successfully stabilize the country and maintain peace”, according to an excerpt released by the White House.
As he prepares to leave Washington, Trump said he is weighing sanctions on the Syrian government.
“We may want to evacuate Syria from Syria because we want to give them a new beginning,” Trump said.
These comments mark a surprising change in Trump’s voice over Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s deeply skeptical Trump.
Al-Sharaa, formerly known for Nom de Guerre Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, joined the Al Qaeda rebels fighting U.S. troops in Iraq after a 2003 U.S.-led invasion and is still facing a warrant for arresting him on terrorism charges in Iraq.
Al-Sharaa, who once provided $10 million to the United States for his connection to Al-Qaeda, returned to his homeland after he began the conflict in 2011, led the Al-Qaeda branch, once known as Nusra Front. Later, he changed the name of his group to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and truncated contact with Al Qaeda.
