# Trump meets Syria’s al-Sharaa in first US-Syria presidential encounter in 25 years
US President Donald Trump met Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia, marking what the supplied report describes as the first encounter between US and Syrian leaders in 25 years. The meeting came as Trump said Washington is considering normalising ties with Damascus and lifting US sanctions on Syria.
Al Jazeera reported that Trump made the announcement at a GCC meeting in Riyadh and said the United States would drop “all sanctions” against Syria. The White House also said Trump asked al-Sharaa to deport people it described as terrorists, sign onto the Abraham Accords with Israel and take responsibility for Islamic State detention centres in northeast Syria.
The optics were striking. Photos posted by Saudi state media showed Trump and al-Sharaa shaking hands in the presence of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined the meeting virtually, giving the encounter a wider regional frame than a simple bilateral talk.
Trump’s sanctions pledge is the major policy shift here. Syria has spent years under pressure from US restrictions, and any move to lift them could reshape the country’s reconstruction prospects and regional relationships. Al Jazeera said celebrations broke out in Syria after Trump’s announcement, which opposition figures and Arab leaders viewed as a significant turn.
The report also makes clear that normalisation is not automatic. Trump’s White House list of asks, especially the call for Syria to join the Abraham Accords, suggests the administration wants political and security concessions alongside sanctions relief. Al Jazeera said its correspondent in Damascus judged that step to be very difficult for al-Sharaa’s government.
The broader context is Syria’s post-Assad transition. Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December after a lightning rebel offensive led by al-Sharaa’s forces, according to the report. That makes the meeting not just unusual but historic: it links the United States directly with a new Syrian leadership that emerged from war rather than regular diplomacy.
There were also broader regional threads. Trump used the same trip to talk about Iran, the Gulf Cooperation Council and later a state visit to Qatar. The Syria meeting nevertheless stands out as the sharpest diplomatic break, because it could alter the external pressure on a country that has been isolated for years.
For now, the verified facts are the meeting, the sanctions announcement and the White House’s demands. Those alone make the encounter one of the most consequential US-Syria moments in a generation.
