Trump meets Syria’s former-insurgent-turned-leader in Saudi Arabia
US President Donald Trump has met Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, going face-to-face with the one-time insurgent leader who spent years imprisoned by US forces after being captured in Iraq.
Mr Trump agreed to “say hello” to Mr al-Sharaa before the US leader wraps up his stay in Saudi Arabia and heads to Qatar, where Mr Trump is to be honoured with a state visit.
His Middle East tour will also take him to the United Arab Emirates.
Mr al-Sharaa was named president of Syria in January, a month after a stunning offensive by insurgent groups led by Mr al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) stormed Damascus and ended the 54-year rule of the Assad family.
Mr Trump said he decided to meet Mr al-Sharaa after being encouraged to do so by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The president also pledged to lift years-long sanctions on Syria.
Prince Mohammed joined Mr Trump and Mr al-Sharaa for the meeting, which lasted for about 33 minutes.
Mr Erdogan also took part in the talks via video conference, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.
“There is a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilising the country and keeping peace,” Mr Trump said in a wide-ranging foreign policy address on Tuesday in which he announced he was lifting the sanctions that have been in place in Syria since 2011.
“That’s what we want to see in Syria.”
Formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, Mr al-Sharaa joined the ranks of al Qaida insurgents battling US forces in Iraq after the US-led invasion and still faces a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges in Iraq.
The US once offered 10 million dollars for information about his whereabouts because of his links to al Qaida.
Mr al-Sharaa came back to his home country of Syria after the conflict began in 2011 and led al Qaida’s branch that used to be known as the Nusra Front.
He later changed the name of his group to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and cut links with al Qaida.
The sanctions go back to the rule of Bashar Assad, who was ousted in December, and were intended to inflict major pain on his economy.
Both the Biden and Trump administrations had left the sanctions in place after Mr Assad’s fall as they sought to take the measure of Mr al-Sharaa, who has renounced his past affiliation with al Qaida.
After the talks with Mr al-Sharaa, Mr Trump headed to a meeting on Wednesday in Riyadh with members of the Gulf Co-operation Council, made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, before setting off for Qatar, the second stop on his Middle East tour.
Qatar, like the other Gulf Arab states, is an autocratic nation where political parties are banned and speech is tightly controlled.
It is overseen by its ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Sheikh Tamim, 44, took power in June 2013 when his father stepped down.
Oil exports in Qatar began after the Second World War, though it would take until 1997 before Qatar began shipping out liquefied natural gas to the world.
That brought unfathomable wealth – and new influence – to the small nation that sticks out like a thumb into the Persian Gulf.
Qatar founded the satellite news network Al Jazeera, which brought an Arab perspective to mass media that helped fuel the 2011 Arab Spring protests.
The network also became famous for running statements from al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Qatar has also played a central role in pay-to-play-style scandals around the globe.
In Israel, authorities are investigating allegations that Qatar hired close advisers to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch PR campaigns to improve the Gulf nation’s image among Israelis.
Two European Union legislators found themselves accused of taking money from Doha in a scandal dubbed “Qatar-gate”.
US prosecutors in 2020 accused Qatar of bribing Fifa executive committee members to secure the tournament in the country in 2022.
In 2024, RTX Corporation, the defence contractor formerly known as Raytheon, agreed to pay more than 950 million dollars to resolve allegations that it defrauded the US government and paid bribes to secure business with Qatar.
Doha has always denied wrongdoing and sponsors an annual anti-corruption prize.
Qatar follows an ultraconservative form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism born out of Saudi Arabia.
However, Qatar struck a different tack in the Arab Spring by backing Islamists, including Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, as well as those who rose up against Mr Assad.
Its support of Islamists, in part, led to a years-long boycott of the country by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
That boycott only ended as then-US president Joe Biden prepared to enter the White House in 2021.
Qatar has also served as a key mediator, particularly with the militant group Hamas as the international community pursues a ceasefire for the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Qatar also served as host of the negotiations between the United States and the Taliban that led to America’s 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Qatar is home to Al-Udeid Air Base, a sprawling facility that hosts the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command.
The oil-rich country is also at the centre of a controversy over its offer to provide Mr Trump with the gift of a luxury Boeing 747-8 that the US could use as Air Force One while new versions of the plane are under construction by Boeing.
The Qatari government has said a final decision has not been made.
But Mr Trump has defended the idea even as critics argue it would amount to a president accepting an astonishingly valuable gift from a foreign government.
Mr Trump has indicated he would refurbish the aircraft and it would later be donated to his post-White House presidential library.
He says he would not use the plane once he leaves office.
The president, early on Wednesday in a social media post, said the plane “is a gift from a Nation, Qatar, that we have successfully defended for many years”.
“Why should our military, and therefore our taxpayers, be forced to pay hundreds of millions of Dollars when they can get it for FREE from a country that wants to reward us for a job well done,” Mr Trump added.
“This big savings will be spent, instead, to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Only a FOOL would not accept this gift on behalf of our Country.”
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