DAMASCUS: Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Wednesday welcomed US President Donald Trump’s “courageous“ lifting of sanctions on his country.
Speaking in a television address, Sharaa said Trump’s move “was a historic and courageous decision, which alleviates the suffering of the people, contributes to their rebirth and lays the foundations for stability in the region”.
The US president’s offer to lift sanctions on Syria, mostly imposed during the repressive rule of ousted president Bashar al Assad, comes as a major boost to the war-ravaged country, still getting to grips with Sharaa’s December toppling of Assad.
Trump met Sharaa in Riyadh on Wednesday, becoming the first US president to meet a Syrian leader in a quarter of a century, and urged the onetime jihadist to normalise ties with Israel.
The Syrian president thanked Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who organised the meeting, as well as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — a key supporter of the new Damascus government — for his role in the encounter.
“Syrians, the road before us is still long. Today we begin the real work, with which modern Syria will be reborn,“ Sharaa added.
Sparked in 2011, Syria’s civil war left more than half a million dead, displaced millions and devastated the Middle Eastern country.
Washington imposed sweeping financial sanctions on Syria during war and made clear it would punish anyone involved in reconstruction so long as Assad remained in power.
Trump however gave no indication that the United States would remove Syria from its blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism — a designation dating back to 1979 over support to Palestinian militants that severely impedes investment.
