'A ray of
hope in the darkness': Trump
US President
Donald Trump has said his administration is now exploring the possibility of
normalising relations with Syria. His comments came shortly after a meeting
with Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The
extraordinary meeting, unthinkable just a few months ago, was brief but
significant.
After a
37-minute meeting in Riyadh with former al-Qaeda affiliate Ahmed al-Sharaa,
Trump said, “I think he has potential.”
The US had
ended a $10 million bounty on the Syrian leader’s head in December.
In video
footage of the conversation at the Saudi royal palace in Riyadh, Trump and al-Sharaa
are seen speaking through an interpreter.
Saudi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman sat next to him, while Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan supported him on the phone. US President Trump acknowledged that
the two leaders also convinced him to lift US sanctions on Syria.
Trump’s surprise
announcement at a major US-Saudi investment forum in Riyadh on Tuesday night
received a standing ov
tion. It was
a stark contrast to Trump’s many past social media posts in which he often said
the US had “no interest in Syria.”
Trump later
described al-Sharaa as a “tough guy with a very tough past” to reporters
traveling with his high-ranking US delegation on his first four-day state
visit.
Al-Sharaa’s
Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was formerly affiliated with
al-Qaeda but later broke with the group in 2016. HTS is still designated a
terrorist organization by the United Nations, the United States and Britain.
Since taking
power in December, al-Sharaa has been wearing Western suits and trying to
portray himself as the president of all Syrians.
Hind Kabaot,
the social affairs minister in Syria’s interim government, said that “there is
now a glimmer of hope in the darkness.” He told the BBC’s News Hour that he had
been calling for sanctions relief since his “Independence Day.”
The US
decision to lift sanctions on Syria has sparked celebrations in a country where
90 percent of Syrians live in poverty after more than a decade of civil war and
severe suffering. The lifting of sanctions that cut Syria off from the
international financial system would allow aid agencies to access the country
more easily and encourage foreign investment and trade.
When I asked
for an extra electronic key for my room last December, a hotel receptionist in
Damascus told me, “We are the North Korea of the Middle East.”
“We don’t
have many cards, we lack everything,” he said, his voice cracking.
The lifting
of sanctions on Syria could also help persuade some of the millions of Syrians
living in exile to think more seriously about returning home, and could help a
fledgling government pay salaries, rebuild, and address growing dissatisfaction
with daily life.
But it will
take time to undo the vast web of sanctions still in place.
“Some
sanctions could be lifted immediately using presidential waivers, but lifting
multilateral sanctions will not be easy and will require real commitment from
the Trump administration,” says Dina Esfandiari of Bloomberg Economics.
I remember
visiting Tehran in the wake of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and the Obama
administration’s commitment to easing sanctions there.
At a news
conference with the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Iranian journalists
kept asking with intense anger why it was impossible for them to even open a
bank account.
Syria’s new
friends, including regional powers like Saudi Arabia and Turkey, are now trying
to shape a new Syria and will have to make sure Trump and his team remain
interested, but Trump has made it clear that if relations are to be fully
normalized, he expects something in return.
First on his
list is ‘joining the Abraham Accords’. The US president has hailed the
normalisation of relations with Israel, which has been joined by several Arab states
including the United Arab Emirates, as one of the foreign policy successes of
his first term.
Al-Shara,
described by his friends as a realist, has already signalled that he
understands the importance of establishing a working relationship with his neighbour
even as Israel continues to bomb ‘terrorist sanctuaries’ – air bases, military
installations and weapons depots – and insists that they ‘could fall into the
wrong hands.’
Last month,
the Syrian leader reportedly told US Congressman Cory Mills that Syria was
ready to normalise relations with Israel and join the Abraham Accords under the
‘right conditions’.
Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged President Trump not to lift sanctions on
Syria, according to Israeli media.
Israel
remains suspicious of al-Sharia and its HTS forces, as well as other groups,
including foreign fighters.
The removal
of foreign fighters is one of Washington’s demands. It is one of the many
challenges facing the Syrian leader at the moment.
President
Trump has called the moment a “moment of greatness.” Millions of Syrians
welcome the broader opportunity that their lives will finally begin to improve.
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