RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Trump said Tuesday he will lift crippling US sanctions against Syria before meeting with the country’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa — despite the former Al Qaeda leader having a $10 million American bounty on his head until recently.
“I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness,” Trump said during a speech to Saudi leaders and businessmen — receiving a standing ovation from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Shortly before Trump took the stage, the White House confirmed that the US president would meet al-Sharaa on Wednesday morning before departing for Qatar.
“The president agreed to say hello to the Syrian president while in Saudi Arabia tomorrow,” a White House official told reporters.
Al-Sharaa, 42, fought against American troops as a member of Al Qaeda in Iraq in the early 2000s, and in 2012 founded the terror network’s al-Nusra Front affiliate to battle Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, before severing ties with Al Qaeda four years later.
The interim president, also known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, was a central figure in Assad’s downfall in December after years of stalemate and has attempted to rebrand himself as a champion of his country’s religious diversity.
The Biden administration canceled the $10 million award for information leading to al-Sharaa’s apprehension in late December.
Trump has publicly credited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with masterminding Assad’s ouster and teased Monday that he would lift longtime US sanctions on Syria at Ankara’s request.
“We’re going to have to make a decision on the sanctions, which we may very well relieve,” Trump said.
“We may take them off of Syria because we want to give them a fresh start. But President Erdogan has asked me about that, many people have asked me about that. The way we have them sanctioned, it doesn’t really give them much of a start. So we want to see if we can help them out.”
