President Trump said Tuesday that he would lift the sanctions to Syria, throwing an economic line of a country devastated for almost 14 years of civil war and decades of Dictator under the Assad family.
Trump was expected to meet for the first time with the new president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharar, on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, where he is making the first important state visit of his second term. Mr. Al-Shara directed the rebel alliance that defeated President Bashar al-Assad in December.
The president of the United States announced the end of the sanctions to Syria when he was heading to a business forum in the Saudi capital, Riad, where the crowd exploded with cheers and gave him a standing ovation.
The decision marks a maritime change for Syria, breaking the economic domain in a country seen as a critic for the stability of the Middle East.
“There is a new government that we hope to succeed in the stabilization of the country and maintain peace,” Trump said. “That is what we want to see in Syria.”
He said he made the decision after talking with Turkey president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who supported the anti -ssad insurgency, and the heir prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bin Salman. The Prince said this week that he would work to increase Riyadh’s total investment in the United States during Trump presidency of $ 600 billion to $ 1 billion, as Trump has requested.
“I will order the cessation of sanctions to Syria,” Trump said in front of giant projections of the United States and Saudi flags, to a audience sitting under a mass spider lamp. “Oh, what I do for the heir prince,” he added, causing laughter of the enthusiastic crowd.
A White House official said Trump agreed to “greet” the Syrian president, while both are in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, according to the press pool that travels with the president of the United States.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asad Hassan Al-Shaibani, in a statement praised the measure as “a victory for justice and a reaffirmation of Arab unity” and as “a new beginning on the road to reconstruction.” In the Syrian capital, Damascus, the drivers touched their horns in celebration as the news extended.
People arrived in the streets of the main cities of Syria, touching speakers for the car to celebrate the news that they expect to relieve the overwhelming poverty that many in the country have faced.
“It’s a great feeling of happiness,” said Mohammed Masri, a 53 -year -old Damascus resident who had come to the Central Umayya Square in the capital to celebrate. Directing the governments of the United States and Saudi, he said: “We thank you for their efforts and their love for Syria. Long live Syria, free and independent.”
A face-to-face meeting with Mr. Trump sacrifices Mr. Al-Shara a unique opportunity to present his case to a world leader with the power to dramatically form the future of Syria. It also marks an impressive change for the man who is led by an Al Qaeda branch, but broke the ties with the jihadist group, Seijsing to moderate his image with the hope of winning the tensile traction.
In the months since a rebel coalition he took control of the Syrian capital, Damascus, and overthrew Mr. Al-Assad, the United States has maintained in its place a regime of sanctions of several layers that, with the war, has led the country to the edge of the economic collapse.
Mr. Al-Shara and other Syrian officials have argued that the fall of the regime should cause the end of the sanctions, many of which were in their place in response to the repression of Bruts of the Assad dictatorship on a survey that began.
“The sanctions were implemented as an answer to the crimes committed by the previous regime against people,” Al-Shara told New York Times in an interview last month.
The supporters and critics of the government of Mr. Al-Shara have argued that raising sanctions is essential to allow an international help and investment flow that could help the country recover from the war.
Several Arab countries had asked Syria to lift themselves to provide assistance and reconstruction, and European countries have raised some sanctions.
But the Trump administration for months maintained its distance from the incipient administration of Mr. Al-Shara. Some US officials have expressed a deep skepticism or the reasons for Mr. Al-Shara and their promises to protect religious minorities, pointing out their Islamist orientation and history with Al Qaeda.
The US administration had avoided the high level commitment to Mr. Al-Shara’s government and issued demands related to terrorism and other problems that, according to him, must be so that the relief of sanctions are consulted.
The Syrian government has said that some of the demands, such as a prohibition of foreign combatants in the Government of Syria and the Armed Forces, must be negotiated. But at the same time, he has made movements to meet other demands.
Syria recently brought a team of Qatar forensic experts to find the remains of Americans killed by the Islamic State group.
And Syrian officials have told US intermediaries who sought to avoid conflict with all neighboring countries, including Israel, and welcomed US investment.
For months, the Syrians and some of their Gulf Arab sponsors had struggled to get the attention of the Trump administration on the issue of sanctions.
European leaders, eager to encourage stability and prevent new waves of migration, have also pressed for greater economic participation.
Last week, the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, offered a diplomatic impulse to Mr. Al-Shara, being the first European leader to organize the Syrian President in his capital and promising impulse to gradually lift the sanctions of the European Union against Syria, showed that the new leaders of the country maintain their way to stability.
He promised to press the Trump administration to consider a similar approach.
“I told the Syrian president that if I continued on his way, constantly in ours,” Macron said.
