'A ray of hope in the darkness': Trump

 

'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.