President Donald Trump announced the United States will soon drop sanctions against Syria.
During lengthy remarks on Tuesday, Trump laid out his vision for the Middle East, sharing a major announcement: He intends to drop sanctions against Syria.
“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.”
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.
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.
Trump also revealed he has invited Saudi Arabia to join his historic Abraham Accords.
“It has been an amazing thing, the Abraham Accords,” Trump said at a Saudi Arabia investment conference. “And it’s my fervent hope, wish, and even my dream that Saudi Arabia, a place I have so much respect for … will soon be joining the Abraham Accords. I think it will be a tremendous tribute to your country.”
Trump negotiated the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, at the end of his first term in office. Now, he is hoping to see Saudi Arabia join it as well.
During lengthy remarks, Trump laid out his vision for the Middle East. Minutes later, he made a second major announcement: He intends to drop sanctions against Syria.
