After signing agreements with Saudi Arabia worth about $600 billion on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump was expected to tout the deals that evening during a speech in Riyadh at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum. Instead, he broke news announcing a major shift in U.S. foreign policy by saying that he intended to lift sanctions on Syria, which had been imposed during the regime of Bashar Assad.
“In Syria, which has seen so much misery and death, there’s a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace,” Trump told attendees, of the new government of Ahmed al-Sharaa, who leads a U.S.-designated terror group. “That’s why my administration has already taken the first steps toward restoring normal relations between the United States and Syria for the first time in more than a decade,” Trump said, to some applause.
The U.S. president said that he made the decision after talking with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness,” Trump said, to the night’s largest ovation. “Oh, what I would do for the crown prince,” he said. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) stated earlier in the day that Israel is “extremely concerned about the state of play in Syria. (Read More)
