Trump lifts sanctions on Syria, touts deals in Middle East tour
The war-devastated nation of Syria seeks US investment to rebuild, as Saudis commit billions in American deal making.
President Trump has decided to lift sanctions on Syria, giving the country a financial lifeline after a lightning campaign overthrew its decadeslong dictator late last year.
“I will be ordering cessation of sanctions against Syria,” Trump said during a foreign-policy address in Riyadh, his first stop on a four-day swing through the Gulf. “Now it’s their time to shine. We’re taking them all off.”
The announcement sets the table for Trump to speak with new Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Wednesday in the Saudi capital, which the White House has billed as a quick meet and greet.
Trump’s remarks capped an eventful first day of his Middle East visit. He signed $US300bn ($460bn) in investment deals with Saudi Arabia with an eye toward doubling that total within four years. He heaped praise on the kingdom’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, promising that “we will always be friends.” He also encouraged Riyadh to move toward normalisation with Israel as soon as it’s ready, even though war rages in Gaza and Palestinians are no closer to self-rule.
Trump also issued an ultimatum to Iran as he aims to prevent the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon. “One way or another, make your move,” he said, adding the country will face “massive maximum pressure” if it doesn’t curb its nuclear work soon. “The offer will not last forever.”
Still, the main message of the first day is that Trump values the transactional nature of US-Gulf relations: as long as money pours into the American economy, the US will remain engaged and close to the region.
“You achieved a modern miracle, the Arabian way,” Trump said of the Gulf’s oil-rich monarchies. “The Gulf nations have shown this entire region a path towards safe and orderly societies with improving quality of life, flourishing economic growth, expanding personal freedoms and increasing responsibilities on the world stage.”
Trump’s stop in Riyadh was always billed as a glitzy spectacle, but few could have predicted the warmth displayed between the two leaders and the nations they lead.
Trump’s visit to Riyadh kicked off with a Saudi F-15 escort as Air Force One touched down at King Khalid International Airport on Tuesday. Drums boomed and horns blared as the crown prince, the country’s de facto ruler, greeted Trump on a lavender-coloured carpet rolled out beneath the American plane. They then walked into the airport for a private ceremony, lined by waving US and Saudi flags, to welcome the president and many of his senior officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Trump and Mohammed also shook the hands of government and business dignitaries ahead of a lunch at the Royal Court, often stopping to speak at length with the most notable guests, who included billionaire Elon Musk and FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
But the region’s many challenges threatened to darken the cheery display.
Trump landed in a Middle East transformed by nearly two years of war following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel, which responded with a devastating military campaign in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of people. Another Israeli war last year against Hezbollah, the collapse of Syria’s longtime dictator and two direct exchanges of fire between Israel and Iran have also left the Iranians greatly weakened.
Syria’s new leader, Sharaa — an Islamist formerly aligned with Islamic State in Iraq and al Qaeda who is still designated by Washington as a terrorist — has sworn off his ties to radicalism and promised to run an inclusive government.
Before leaving for the Middle East, Trump said he was considering lifting sanctions on Syria’s economy to help give the country “a new start.” Sharaa is trying to win US support to rebuild Syria after more than a decade of civil war. He is reaching out through intermediaries to Israel and signalling willingness to let US oil-and-gas companies work in the country.
Syrian government officials have said Sharaa wants to share with Trump his vision of a Marshall Plan-style reconstruction in which American and other Western companies would win out over competition from China and other powers.
Trump’s Middle East trip also brings the president to the shores across from Iran just as his administration is deeply engaged in diplomatic efforts to curb Tehran’s nuclear program. A fourth round of talks between US and Iranian officials on Sunday failed to make clear progress.
While Trump will be a quick plane ride from Israel, he isn’t scheduled to stop there, a glaring miss amid rising tensions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Iran, persistent Houthi aggressions from Yemen and Gaza’s fate.
The US president has struggled to broker a ceasefire and hostage-release deal in Gaza, which Riyadh wants before even talking about normalising relations with Israel, a major diplomatic prize for Trump. But Trump did succeed in getting Hamas on Monday to release the last living American hostage, Edan Alexander.
In his Tuesday speech, Trump urged Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords, the normalisation pacts with Israel that allow for closer economic, political, and cultural ties. Riyadh has resisted such a move after Israel’s attacks on Hamas in Gaza and rejection of a two-state solution. That didn’t stop Trump from pressing the issue.
“It will be a special day in the Middle East, with the whole world watching, when Saudi Arabia joins us, and you’ll be greatly honouring me, and you’ll be greatly honouring all of those people that have fought so hard for the Middle East,” Trump said, “but you’ll do it in your own time.”
And then there is a personal matter: how Trump and his family profit from foreign nations — including those on the itinerary — contributing to his cryptocurrency and branded projects. Trump is facing scrutiny over the administration’s talks with Doha about accepting a luxury Qatari plane as the new Air Force One.
The three Gulf nations will save sensitive foreign-policy issues for closed-door discussions. The public messaging will centre on more closely aligning their economic interests with Washington’s.
Ahead of the trip, the State Department approved the possible sale of advanced air-to-air missiles and precision-guided weapons to Saudi Arabia. The Treasury Department announced plans to streamline how “ally and partner sources” can invest in the US market that had long been pushed by the UAE Qatar could get a deal for F-15 jet fighters and the UAE might look to revive the purchase of F-35s that was promised at the end of Trump’s first term but blocked by former President Joe Biden, regional and US officials said.
“Making deals isn’t just what Trump seeks to do, it’s his personal ideology. Every international interaction, whether with allies or adversaries, is in Trump’s mind supposed to lead to a deal,” said Stephen Wertheim, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s American Statecraft program.
Trump will end the Saudi leg of his trip with a Wednesday-morning address at a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a grouping of Arab countries established in the 1980s as a counterweight to Iran.
He will then fly to Doha for talks with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. The discussion is expected to include energy and investments but will likely focus more on foreign policy.
The trip concludes with a day in the UAE, which has pledged to invest $1.4 trillion in the US over a decade.
Saudi Arabia was also Trump’s first foreign destination in 2017, in a break with the tradition of US presidents usually starting with Canada or Britain. At the time, Trump was warmly received in the kingdom, feted with sword dances and having his face projected onto the glitzy Ritz-Carlton’s exterior. He hasn’t met publicly this time with King Salman, who is 89 and has been hospitalised repeatedly in recent years.
Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia as president in 2022 was tense, featuring an awkward fist bump with the crown prince and renewed attention to human-rights violations, a topic that is far from the agenda for Trump’s current trip. At least one American is imprisoned in Saudi Arabia and three others, including dual Saudi-American citizen Saad Ibrahim Almadi, are banned from leaving the kingdom following court cases against them, according to family and US advocacy group Middle East Democracy Center.
Wall Street Journal
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