President Donald Trump announced Tuesday the United States will drop sanctions against Syria and said he will meet with the nation’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, this week.
“I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness,” Trump said in a speech in Saudi Arabia, his first stop on the first international tour of his second term in office.
“In Syria, which has seen so much misery and death, there is a new government that we must all hope will succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace,” he said. “So I say good luck, Syria.”
Trump is expected to meet briefly with al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
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President Donald Trump speaks during the Saudi-U.S. investment forum at the King Abdul Aziz International Conference Center in Riyadh on May 13, 2025. (Fayez Nureldine/AFP via Getty Images)
The nation was cut off from the global financial system under ousted President Bashar al-Assad’s government, imposed during 14 years of civil war.
Trump called the sanctions “brutal and crippling” but “important” at the time.
“In Syria, they’ve had their share of travesty, war, killing many years. 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.”
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Trump is expected to meet briefly with Syrian President Ahmed al-Shaara in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. (SANA via AP)
Al-Sharaa, who previously had a $10 million terrorist bounty on his head by the U.S., had been campaigning hard for a relationship with Washington and sanctions relief: he offered to build a Trump Tower in Damascus, détente with Israel, and U.S. access to Syria’s oil and gas.
His group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led Assad’s ouster last year. Originally founded as an offshoot of al Qaeda, it has since worked to soften its image and lobbied to be delisted as a terrorist group.
The announcement came during a whirlwind Middle East tour where Trump is traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, whose government leaders were widely expected to press Trump to release the sanctions to help Syria’s economy.
Trump said both Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Erdoğan had encouraged him to lift the sanctions.
“Oh, what I do for the crown prince,” Trump quipped.
U.S. sanctions had slapped financial penalties on any foreign individual or company that provided material support to the Syrian government and prohibited anyone in the U.S. from dealing in any Syrian entity, including oil and gas, and Syrian banks were effectively cut off from global financial systems.
The new Syrian government has cooperated with U.S. intelligence agencies and foiled several ISIS plots to attack Damascus. Syrian intelligence services arrested ISIS commander Abu al-Harith al-Iraqi in February.
Security forces in al-Sharaa’s government ride in the back of a vehicle in Syria’s western city of Latakia on March 9, 2025. (Omar Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images)
“Al Sharaa has a checkered past, which we all want to be cautious with but at the same time, I think that this is a great opportunity to help Syria move in a different direction,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., who recently met with the Syrian leader, told Fox News Digital.
“If we don’t engage, I believe that we would definitely just be pushing him back into the arms of Russia and potentially even Iran.”
During their meeting, Stutzman said al-Sharaa laid out his vision to turn Syria into a hub for trade, commerce and tourism.
“He really does want to build Syria into a country similar like to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE,” the congressman said. “He really got excited, kind of moved up to the edge of his seat, when he started talking about the opportunity for trade lines to cross Syria into Europe.”
But still, some are skeptical.
“Right now, Sharaa is not restricting political and civil liberties, but he’s an authoritarian by nature,” former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford told Fox News Digital.
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Ford, who led the effort to put al-Sharaa on the terrorist list in 2012, said although al-Sharaa is pragmatic, he is leading an extremely weak government.
“He doesn’t control all of Syria yet. The government in Damascus that he leads is not very strong, and it will take time to reassert all of its authority over Syria,” Ford said.
Fox News’ Chris Massaro contributed to this report.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.