President Donald Trump further solidified efforts to create a new relationship with Syria when he met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh on Wednesday morning. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was also in attendance, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan joined remotely.
The meeting came after Trump—who is in the middle of a three-country tour of the Middle East—delivered a speech on Tuesday in which he announced his plan to lift U.S. sanctions on Syria in support of "a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace.”
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Syria’s President al-Sharaa, a former militant, led the country’s rebel resurgence in December, during which his armed faction Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—classified internationally as a terrorist group—toppled Bashar Assad’s government in Syria. Until late December, the United States had a $10m bounty on the new Syrian President for his arrest.
After the meeting, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that the sit-down went “great” and referred to al-Sharaa as a “young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter."
He added: “He’s got a real shot at holding it together. I spoke with President Erdogan, who is very friendly with him. He feels he’s got a shot of doing a good job. It’s a torn-up country."
Trump expressed hope that Syria may join the Abraham Accords alongside other Arab and Muslim countries, to normalize relations with Israel.
In a post on X, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that al-Sharaa had "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." She also confirmed that the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Israel-Hamas war were discussed in Wednesday’s meeting.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that the U.S. had agreed to sell Saudi Arabia an arms package worth nearly $142 billion. Described by the Trump Administration as "the largest defense cooperation agreement" in history, the package includes deals with more than a dozen American defense companies in sectors including air and missile defense.
"The deals celebrated today are historic and transformative for both countries and represent a new golden era of partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia," the White House said in a statement.
A partnership between Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior and the FBI was also included in the agreements.
Read More: Why Trump and the Saudis Are Cozying Up
News of the arms deal came after Trump attended a VIP lunch at the lavish Saudi Royal Court alongside other high-profile guests including Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO who is leading the Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The attendance by Musk, who previously said he would significantly reduce the amount of time spent on DOGE from May, suggests he is continuing to play a prominent role in the Trump Administration.
Other key U.S. business figures including Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink were also in attendance.
Trump’s first day of the Middle East tour concluded with a dinner at Omar bin Saud Palace, alongside the Saudi Crown Prince.
Read More: Trump Doubles Down on Plan to Receive Qatar’s Plane Gift: ‘Only a Fool Would Not Accept This’
Meanwhile, before departing Riyadh on Wednesday morning and heading to Doha, Qatar, Trump attended the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit. During the meeting, Trump emphasized his interest in making a deal with Iran, but he said in order for that to happen, the country must "stop sponsoring terror" and "must not have a nuclear weapon."
These discussions and developments come amid Trump's decision to skip visiting Israel during his high-profile trip to the Middle East.
"The country left out of this picture is Israel," says Elliott Abram, a senior fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations. "While Trump had a close relationship with Israel in his first term, his transactional approach is leading him to negotiate with Iran, with the Houthis, and now with the Gulf countries without any attention to Israeli concerns."