President Donald Trump spoke positively of his meeting Wednesday with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia.
While taking questions with reporters aboard Air Force One en route from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, Trump was asked how he found al-Sharaa during the meeting alongside Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh.
“Great…Young, attractive guy, tough guy, strong past, very strong past– fighter. But he’s got a real shot at pulling it together,” Trump said.
As Breitbart News’s John Hayward noted, al-Sharra is a former al-Qaeda and Islamic State lieutenant who came to power in December after he led rebels in toppling dictator Bashar Assad.
He was appointed as president in January.
Trump notably announced he was lifting sanctions on Syria on Tuesday in a major development in the region.
Details of U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to lift sanctions on Syria. (Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
During the meeting on Wednesday, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan dialed into remotely, he and bin Salman lauded Trump’s move to lift the sanctions, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“President Trump thanked President Erdogan and the Crown Prince for their friendship, and told President Al-Sharaa that he has a tremendous opportunity to do something historic in his country,” Leavitt wrote in a post on X.
Leavitt wrote that Trump encouraged al-Sharaa to join the Abraham Accords, to call on all foreign terrorists to depart Syria, to “Deport Palestinian terrorists,” to help prevent a resurgence of ISIS, and to take on “responsibility for ISIS detention centers in Northeast Syria.”
Al-Sharaa expressed his gratitude to all participants in the meeting, per Leavitt:
President Al-Sharaa thanked President Trump, the Crown Prince, and President Erdogan for their efforts to put together the meeting, and recognized the significant opportunity presented by the Iranians leaving Syria, as well as shared U.S.-Syrian interests in countering terrorism and eliminating chemical weapons.
He further expressed a desire for Syria to emerge as a critical component in global trade.
“President Al-Sharaa concluded with his hope that Syria would serve as a critical link in facilitating trade between east and west, and invited American companies to invest in Syrian oil and gas,” Leavitt noted.
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