President Donald Trump announced he would end sanctions against Syria after speaking with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Trump said in Saudi Arabia:
In Syria, which has seen so much misery and death, there is a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace. That’s what we want to see in Syria. They’ve had their share of travesty, war, killing for many years.That’s why my administration has already taken the first steps toward restoring normal relations between the United States and Syria for the first time in more than a decade.And I’m very pleased to announce that Secretary Marco Rubio will be meeting with the new Syrian foreign minister in Turkey later this week, and very importantly, after discussing the situation in Syria with the crown prince, your crown prince, and also with President Erdogan of Turkey, who called me the other day and asked for a very similar thing among others and friends of mine, people that have a lot of respect for in the Middle East, I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness.
The U.S. has had sanctions on Syria for over a decade during its civil war to punish then-President Bashar Assad’s regime as he brutalized anti-government protesters.
I don’t think Trump’s administration will lift Syria’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, which has been in place since 1979.
Anti-Assad rebels, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), began toppling the regime in November when they entered Aleppo.
HTS, which the U.S has listed as a terrorist organization, has controlled regions of Syria since 2020.
Turkey is a major supporter of HTS.
The rebels entered Damascus, the capital, in early December. Footage showed people destroying Assad statues.
The 50-year Assad family rule of Syria ended.
Assad fled to Russia, where Vladimir Putin granted him asylum.
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