US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a move to lift sanctions on Syria’s new government to give the country “a chance at peace”, and to try improving America's relations with Syria.
This move comes in the wake of his planned visit with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. The strategic reconcilliations come at the behest of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as per an Associated Press report.
“There is a new government that will hopefully succeed,” Trump said of Syria, wishing them good luck. “Show us something special.”
Syria's interim president al-Sharaa, known primarily for a major role in the war-torn nation's insurgent movement that followed a US invasion in 2003, had once been imprisoned in Iraq for it. Al-Sharaa was named the president of Syria in January this year, a month after insurgent groups led by his rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), stormed Damascus, ending the 54-year-rule of the Assad family.
Numerous Gulf leaders have shown support for al-Sharaa in a bid to prevent Iranian influence on Syria, which had once helped prop up former leader Bashar al-Assad’s government during a decade-long civil war. Israel, however, cautioned against America's recognition of al-Sharaa's government, on grounds of the interim president's extremist past.
Formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa joined hands with Al-Qaeda insurgents who took on US forces in Iraq in 2003 and still faces a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges in Iraq, the Associated Press report said.
The report added that al-Sharaa later cut off ties with Al-Qaeda, and is now set to become the first Syrian leader to meet an American president since the late Hafez al-Assad met Bill Clinton in Geneva in 2000.
