‘Oh what I do for the crown prince’: Trump to lift sanctions on Syria after rebel takeover

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: President Donald Trump has announced that the US will lift long-standing sanctions on Syria, and secured a $US600 billion ($926 billion) commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the US on a trip to the Gulf.

The US agreed to sell Saudi Arabia an arms package worth nearly $US142 billion ($220 billion), according to the White House, which called it “the largest defence co-operation agreement” Washington has ever made.

The surprise announcement on Syria’s sanctions would be a huge boost for a country that has been shattered by more than a decade of civil war. Rebels led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa toppled president Bashar al-Assad last December.

Trump also expressed in his strongest terms yet a willingness to negotiate with Iran, signalling a reordering of US foreign policy in which there are no “permanent enemies”, The Washington Post reported.

Speaking in Riyadh on Tuesday (Saudi time), Trump said he was acting on a request from Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to scrap the Syria sanctions.

“Oh what I do for the crown prince,” Trump said, drawing laughs from the audience. He said the sanctions had served an important function, but it was time for the country to move forward.

The US declared Syria a state sponsor of terrorism in 1979, added sanctions in 2004 and imposed further sanctions after the civil war broke out in 2011.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said on X that the planned move marked a “new start” in Syria’s path to reconstruction. Trump has agreed to briefly greet Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, a White House official said.

Trump and the Saudi crown prince signed an agreement covering energy, defence, mining and other areas. The US president has sought to strengthen relations with the Saudis to improve regional ties with Israel and act as a bulwark against Iran.

The agreement covers deals with more than a dozen US defence companies, in areas including air and missile defence, air force and space advancement, maritime security and communications, a fact sheet said.

The Saudi prince said the deal included investment opportunities worth $US600 billion, including deals worth $300 billion that were signed during Trump’s visit.

“We will work in the coming months on the second phase to complete deals and raise it to $US1 trillion ($1.5 trillion),” he said.

Saudi Arabia is one of the largest customers for US arms.

“I really believe we like each other a lot,” Trump said during a meeting with the crown prince.

The US and Saudi Arabia discussed Riyadh’s potential purchase of Lockheed F-35 fighter jets, two sources briefed on the talks told Reuters. It was not immediately clear whether those aircraft were covered in the deal announced on Tuesday.

Trump speaks at the Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh.Credit: AP

Trump arrived in Riyadh – the first stop in a four-day Middle East tour – with a raised fist as he got off Air Force One, which had been escorted in by Saudi F-15 fighter planes.

The president, who was accompanied by US business leaders including billionaire Elon Musk, will travel to Qatar on Wednesday and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.

Trump is not scheduled to stop in Israel, a decision that has raised questions about where the close ally stands in Washington’s priorities. The focus of the trip is on investment rather than Middle East security matters.

“While energy remains a cornerstone of our relationship, the investments and business opportunities in the kingdom have expanded and multiplied many, many times over,” Saudi Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih said.

“As a result ... when Saudis and Americans join forces, very good things happen, more often than not great things happen when those joint ventures happen,” he said before Trump’s arrival.

Trump told the investment forum, in what The Washington Post described as a campaign-style speech, that relations with Saudi Arabia would be even stronger.

Royal Saudi Air Force F-15s provide an honorary escort for Air Force One.Credit: AP

He was shown speaking with Riyadh’s sovereign wealth fund governor Yaser al-Rumayyan, Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser, and Falih as he toured a hall that showed off models for the kingdom’s flashy, multibillion-dollar development projects.

Musk chatted briefly with Trump and the crown prince, who is otherwise known as MBS, during a palace reception. Top US businessmen, including Musk and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, also joined Trump for a lunch with MbS.

Reuters

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.