US President Donald Trump has said he will lift sanctions on Syria, ahead of an expected meeting with its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Trump has agreed to “say hello” to Syria’s interim president on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia as part of his tour of the Middle East, the White House said.
The announcement of the lifting of sanctions was met with elation in the Syrian capital of Damascus, where cheering, dancing and celebratory gunfire were heard.
The sanctions had previously blocked any foreign financing, including aid, from reaching Syria and were originally intended to put pressure on the dictatorship of now-ousted President Bashar al-Assad.
Trump said the policy change would give Syria “a chance at greatness”, telling an investment forum in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh, “it’s their time to shine.”
Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani celebrated the decision as a “pivotal turning point for the country” in an interview with the country’s state news agency, Sana.
The country looks forward to a future of “stability, self-sufficiency and genuine reconstruction after years of a destructive war”, he added.
Ninety percent of Syria’s population were left under the poverty line at the end of Assad’s regime and its new government has been pushing for an end to sanctions since Assad was overthrown in December.
Al-Sharaa told the BBC in an interview late last year that Syria was not a threat to the world and called for sanctions to be lifted.
He also called for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group who overthrew Assad, to be de-listed as a terrorist organisation. It is designated as one by the UN, US, EU and UK, among many others, as it started as a splinter group of al-Qaeda, which it broke away from in 2016.
Al-Sharaa repeated these calls at a joint press conference with France’s President Emmanuel Macron last week, saying “these sanctions were imposed on the previous regime because of the crimes it committed, and this regime is gone.”
The Syrian leader has promised to protect ethnic minorities since his Sunni Islamist group led the rebel offensive that overthrew Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December after 13 years of devastating civil war.
However, the mass killings of hundreds of civilians from Assad’s minority Alawite sect in the western coastal region in March, during clashes between the new security forces and Assad loyalists, has hardened fears among minority communities.
There have also been deadly clashes between Islamist armed factions, security forces and fighters from the Druze religious minority.
The US’s announcement is a major boost for al-Sharaa, and also marks a significant foreign policy shift for the US, which previously said it would not lift sanctions on Syria until issues such as minority rights progressed in the country.
Trump said his announcement followed a request from Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
“Oh, what I do for the Crown Prince,” the US leader said, adding, “I like him too much.”
The pair met on Tuesday on Trump’s first stop of his tour of the Middle East, where they jointly announced a $142bn (£107bn) arms deal.
Former US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, who served under former President Barack Obama, applauded the Trump administration’s move to lift sanctions.
“I visited Syria three months ago and the country is simply devastated after the 13-year civil war. It needs to rebuild, it needs reconstruction, it needs foreign financing to do that,” he told the BBC.
“So removing the sanctions, that will enable international capital flows to go into Syria from Gulf states, from other Arab states and from different aid agencies is absolutely vital.”
The tour of the Arab Gulf states will also see Trump visit Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
