The big boss of Syria’s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) gang that led a super-fast rebel attack grabbing Damascus from the government’s grip, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, giving a speech to a crowd at the famous Umayyad Mosque in the capital on December 8, 2024. The U.S. President Donald Trump kickin’ it with Syrian chief Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia before heading to Qatar on Wednesday, as per the White House, just a day after the U.S. said they were lifting sanctions on the war-torn country. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was the man in charge at the meeting, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joining in over the phone.
Trump was all about showin’ some love to Erdogan and the Crown Prince, thanking them for their friendship, and telling Al-Sharaa that he’s got a real shot at makin’ history in his country, according to a readout from the White House. The big man in the White House encouraged Al-Sharaa to step up for the Syrian people and gave him a laundry list of stuff to do, like signing onto the Abraham Accords with Israel, booting out all the foreign terrorists, kicking out Palestinian terrorists, helping the U.S. keep the Islamic State group in check, and taking charge of their detention centers in northeast Syria. Syria’s been on the U.S. naughty list as a state sponsor of terrorism since way back in 1979, with sanctions droppin’ on in 2004 and 2011 after Bashar Assad went all out on anti-government rebels.
The fall of the Assad regime in a surprise attack by anti-Assad rebel groups last December shocked the whole world and opened up a new chapter for the war-torn country. The new big cheese in Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda member who says he’s reformed, is now runnin’ the show as the head of the transitional government. Saudi Arabia and Turkey played a major role in gettin’ Trump to lift the sanctions on Syria and meet up with Al-Sharaa, as per White House peeps. More and more Arab and Muslim nations have been pushin’ for Syria to be brought back into the Arab family, even before Assad got the boot. “I’m gonna call off the sanctions on Syria so they can have a shot at greatness,” Trump declared to a packed crowd at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in Riyadh, kickin’ off his four-day Middle East tour. “In Syria, where there’s been so much misery and death, there’s a new government that hopefully will succeed in bringin’ stability and peace to the country. That’s what we wanna see,” the prez said, gettin’ applause from the crowd.
