Trump meets Syria’s Sharaa, who wants a deal with US and a Trump Tower in Damascus

US President Donald Trump meets Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, hours after he made a surprise announcement of lifting all sanctions on Syria.

Trump agreed to “say hello” to Sharaa, the rebel leader who led an armed uprising in 2024 to topple Bashar al-Assad’s government, forcing him to flee to Russia. The US president will be in Riyadh on Wednesday for meetings with the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Trump will meet Sharaa ahead of the summit, according to a pool report from The Washington Post.

US lifts sanctions on Syria

In an unprecedented move, Trump said he “will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness”.

This signals a major shift in the US’s policy toward Syria. Quite interestingly, Trump admitted that his decision was influenced by Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

More from World

‘No longer a pariah’: How Syria will benefit from Trump’s decision to lift sanctions EU leaders still wary of Syria's new regime as bloc lifts all economic sanctions on country

Trump: I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness... Oh what I do for the crown prince pic.twitter.com/OPDDcDDdUp

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 13, 2025

During his visit to Paris last week, Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said there was no justification for maintaining European sanctions imposed against the Assad government.

“These sanctions were imposed on the previous regime because of the crimes it committed, and this regime is gone,” Sharaa said in a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.

“With the removal of the regime, these sanctions should be removed as well, and there is no justification for keeping the sanctions,” he added.

How Sharaa has been trying to charm Trump

Sharaa has been losing his sweat over a chance to get face time with Trump. His pitch to the US president will include ambitious plans like a Trump Tower in Damascus, a detente with Israel and US access to Syria’s oil and gas.

Syria has struggled to implement conditions set out by Washington for relief from US sanctions, which keep the country cut off from the global financial system and make economic recovery extremely challenging after 14 years of grinding war.

Advocates for increased US involvement in Syria believe that a meeting between Trump and Sharaa, who is still labelled a terrorist by the US due to his past ties to al-Qaeda, might influence the Republican administration to adopt a more flexible stance toward Damascus and ease growing tensions between Syria and Israel.

With inputs from agencies