The US President Donald Trump will hold a brief meeting with Syriaʼs new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia.
Bloomberg reports this, citing a White House representative.
The meeting is of great importance for Syria and the countryʼs new president, al-Sharaa, who is currently actively working to lift Western sanctions against Syria. However, his past worries European and American officials — he previously led the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel group that overthrew the government of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
In 2018, HTS was designated a terrorist organization due to its ties to al-Qaeda. However, al-Sharaa announced that it had severed ties with the organization and subsequently launched a campaign to rebrand itself and HTS.
Ahmed al-Sharaaʼs team tried to arrange a meeting with President Trump during his visit to Saudi Arabia this week, but the White House said there would be no such meeting. There is no consensus among Trumpʼs advisers on whether such a meeting is necessary, The Times reported, citing sources.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka are skeptical. Former national security adviser Mike Waltz has also been cautious. Meanwhile, the president’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, one of Trump’s most trusted advisers, supports the idea of dialogue with Syria, understanding that Trump prefers business over war.
A few days before leaving for Saudi Arabia, Donald Trump said he was considering easing sanctions imposed during the Assad regime that block trade and banking in Syria in order to give the country a "fresh start."
Last week, Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa met with French President Emmanuel Macron, who helped lift UN travel restrictions, and suggested that the EU could gradually lift sanctions if the new regime follows through on promises of reform.
The overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria
On December 8, 2024, the Syrian opposition entered the Syrian capital, Damascus, and overthrew the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, who had been in power for 24 years. Assad himself fled to Moscow.
Syrian rebels formed a transitional government, led by Muhammad Bashir, who led the "Salvation Government" — a political structure created in 2017 in territories controlled by the Syrian opposition, primarily in the province of Idlib.
The leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group, Ahmed al-Sharaa, became the new president of Syria in January 2025. He has repeatedly stressed that the country is exhausted by war and poses no threat to either its neighbors or the West. He calls for the lifting of international sanctions on Syria, as they were imposed against the already overthrown regime of Bashar al-Assad.
- On May 13, Donald Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia, his first official visit during his second presidential term.
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