this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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http://archive.today/2025.05.13-183726/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/world/middleeast/trump-syria-president-meeting.html

President Trump said on Tuesday that he would lift sanctions on Syria, throwing an economic lifeline to a country devastated by nearly 14 years of civil war and decades of dictatorship under the Assad family.

Mr. Trump was expected to meet for the first time with Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Shara, on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, where he is making the first major state visit of his second term. Mr. al-Shara led the rebel alliance that ousted President Bashar al-Assad in December.

The decision marks a sea change for Syria, breaking the economic stranglehold on a country seen as critical to the stability of the Middle East.

“There is a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace,” Mr. Trump said. “That’s what we want to see in Syria.”

A face-to-face meeting with Mr. Trump offers Mr. al-Shara a unique opportunity to make his case to a world leader with the power to dramatically shape Syria’s future. It also marks a stunning turnaround for the man who once led a branch of Al Qaeda but broke ties with the jihadist group, seeking to moderate his image in the hope of gaining broader traction.

In the months since a rebel coalition seized control of the Syrian capital, Damascus, and toppled Mr. al-Assad, the United States has kept in place a multilayered sanctions regime that, with the war, has pushed the country to the brink of economic collapse.

Mr. al-Shara and other Syrian officials have argued that the fall of the regime should trigger an end to sanctions, many of which were put in place in response to the Assad dictatorship’s brutal crackdown on an uprising that began in 2011 and morphed into a civil war.

“The sanctions were implemented as a response to crimes committed by the previous regime against the people,” Mr. al-Shara told The New York Times in an interview last month.

And Syrian officials have told American intermediaries that they sought to avoid conflict with all neighboring countries, including Israel, and welcomed American investment.

But the Trump administration for months kept its distance from Mr. al-Shara’s fledgling administration. Some U.S. officials have expressed deep skepticism of Mr. al-Shara’s motives and his promises to protect religious minorities, pointing to his Islamist orientation and history with Al Qaeda.

The American administration had avoided high-level engagements with Mr. al-Shara’s government and issued demands related to counterterrorism and other issues that it says must be met for sanctions relief to be considered.

European leaders, eager to foster stability and prevent new waves of migration, have also pushed for more economic engagement.

Last week, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, offered a diplomatic boost to Mr. al-Shara, being the first European leader to host the Syrian president in his capital and vowing push to gradually lift European Union sanctions on Syria, provided that the country’s new leaders maintain their path toward stability.

“I told the Syrian president that if he continued to follow his path, we would continue on ours,” Mr. Macron said.

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[–] radiofreebc@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago

Guess he liked that Trump Tower they said they were going to build in Syria.