05/14/2025

In Major Policy Shift, Trump to Remove U.S. Sanctions on Syria

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked for the favor

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would order the lifting of sanctions on Syria at the behest of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a major U.S. policy shift ahead of an expected meeting with Syria's Islamist President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Trump is set to say hello to Sharaa on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, a White House official said, setting up an encounter between the president and the former al Qaeda commander who took power after Bashar al-Assad was toppled. Two Syrian presidential sources told Reuters that they would meet on Wednesday morning.

"I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness," Trump told a forum in Riyadh, at the start of his tour of Gulf Arab states. "It's their time to shine. We're taking them all off. Good luck, Syria; show us something very special."*

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*Grammatical corrections related to capitalization and punctuation corrected by OSAP.