US President Donald Trump met on Wednesday with Syria's new interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former rebel leader who spent years imprisoned by US forces after being captured in Iraq.
The meeting took place before Trump ends his stay in Saudi Arabia and travels to Qatar, as part of a Middle East tour that will also include a stop in the United Arab Emirates.
Trump and al-Sharaa met behind closed doors, with reporters not allowed to attend, the Associated Press reported.
Al-Sharaa was declared president of Syria in January, a month after a surprise offensive by rebel groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which he led. The organization is designated a terrorist organization by the United States. Those forces overran Damascus and ended the Assad family's 54-year rule.
Trump said before the meeting that he decided to meet with al-Sharaan after encouragement from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He also promised to lift long-standing sanctions on Syria.
"There is a new government in Syria that, hopefully, will be able to stabilize the country and maintain peace," Trump said in a wide-ranging foreign policy speech on Tuesday, where he announced the lifting of sanctions that have been in place since 2011.
"This is what we want to see in Syria."
Previously known by the nickname Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa had aligned himself with al-Qaeda against American forces in Iraq after the US-led invasion.
He still faces an arrest warrant on terrorism charges in Iraq. The US had previously offered a $10 million reward for information on his whereabouts, due to his links to al-Qaeda.
Al-Sharaa returned to Syria after the outbreak of conflict in 2011, and took over the leadership of the al-Qaeda branch known as the Nusra Front. He later renamed the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and severed formal ties with al-Qaeda.
The sanctions on Syria date back to the time of Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted from power in December. They were intended to severely damage his regime's economy.
Both US administrations - the previous administration of President Joe Biden and the current administration of President Trump - had left these sanctions in place even after the overthrow of Assad, while appreciating the stance of al-Sharaa, who has denied further ties to al-Qaeda. /REL (A2 Televizion)
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