Trump urges Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to sign Abraham Accordsrecognizing Israel
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Trump urged Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to sign the Abraham Accords in a previously unplanned meeting on Wednesday — one day after lifting all sanctions on the Middle Eastern country.The two leaders met on the sidelines of a Gulf Cooperation Council gathering in Riyadh, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan phoning into the conversation.Syria currently doesn’t recognize Israel’s statehood, and the Abraham Accords were just one of Trump’s asks to Syria in an effort to normalize relations.Trump also told the Syrian leader to make all foreign terrorists leave Syria, deport Palestinian terrorists, help the U.S.prevent the rise of ISIS and take responsibility for the ISIS detention centers in Northeast Syria, per the White House.Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on Syria led to a standing ovation from Saudi leaders and businessmen at an investment forum on Tuesday.“I felt very strongly that this would give them a chance,” Trump said at the GCC meeting on Wednesday.
“Gives them a good, strong chance…it was my honor to do so.“We are currently exploring normalizing with Syria’s new government,” he said. Al-Sharaa, 42, is a career militant who fought US troops as a member of Al Qaeda in Iraq in the early 2000s before founding the terrorist group’s Nusra Front affiliate in Syria in 2012.He broke with Al Qaeda’s leadership in 2016 and has sought to rebrand himself as a defender of Syria’s religious diversity, which includes Christians and Allawites, both of which comprise more than 10% of the population, and Druze which comprise about 3%.Trump called on Syria to recognize Israel after also calling on Saudi Arabia to do so, saying Tuesday that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman would “be greatly honoring me” by doing so.The Abraham Accords were negotiated in 2020 during Trump’s first term by his son-in-law and then-White House adviser Jared Kushner.Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates initially ...