United States President Donald Trump’s signing of a $142-billion defense deal with Saudi Arabia in Riyadh Wednesday was overshadowed by his meeting with Syria’s de facto leader on the sideline of a summit with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and announcement of the lifting of US sanctions on the civil war-ravaged Arab country.
Trump, on a state visit to Riyadh Tuesday, became the first US president in 25 years to meet a Syrian leader — Ahmed al-Sharaa, an erstwhile Islamist guerrilla and onetime jihadist once on a US wanted list who led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December.
The interim Syrian president and Trump, wearing matching suits, shook hands as they met jointly with Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and, by video link, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the key supporter of the new government in Damascus.
Trump asked Syria’s new leader to normalize relations with Israel by joining the so-called Abraham Accords signed by some Gulf Arab states.
He also asked Sharaa to deport Palestinian militants and for the new Syrian authorities to take control of camps for captured Islamic State fighters, currently run by Kurdish guerrillas opposed by Turkey, the White House said.
After the longer-than-expected half-hour meeting, Trump said that the Assad-era sanctions had been “really crippling” on Syria, and it was his honor to lift it, he told Gulf Arab leaders in the meeting.
Turkey and Saudi Arabia had both advocated reconciliation with Syria but the move is the latest to put Trump at odds with Israel, which has voiced pessimism over Sharaa and ramped up strikes to degrade the longtime adversary’s military capabilities.
Meanwhile, Trump reaffirmed America’s strategic commitment and partnership with the region before GCC leaders on Tuesday, Al Jazeera reports.
Part of the US-Saudi Arabia defense deal is $600 billion worth of trade and investments by Riyadh in the US.
“I’ll be asking the crown prince, who’s a fantastic guy, to round it out to around one trillion. I think they’ll do that because we’ve been very good to them,” Trump said in response to the offer of the Saudi prince.
He left Riyadh on Wednesday, arriving in Doha, Qatar on the same day. The Middle East tour will be capped by Trump’s visit to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.