Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of the jihadist terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), praised President Donald Trump in an address on Wednesday for taking the “courageous and historic” step of lifting sanctions on his country.
Sharaa delivered a speech to the Syrian people following an in-person meeting with President Trump in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where President Trump concluded the first of three stops in a Middle East tour on Wednesday. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who first met Sharaa shortly after HTS toppled the half-century-old Assad family regime in Damascus, arranged and presided over the meeting.
The event was the first time in 25 years an American president had met a Syrian head of state.
HRH the Crown Prince, #US President, and #Syrian President in Riyadh.
— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) May 14, 2025
pic.twitter.com/Ju8jfnXraW
President Trump announced that he would lift sanctions on Syria on Tuesday before the meeting. He reinforced his commitment to the decision in remarks to reporters following his meeting with Sharaa, who he called “pretty amazing.”
Syria is currently on the State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism and the subject of extensive, onerous sanctions. All stem from the behavior of former dictator Bashar Assad, who allied himself closely with Iran and its entire terrorist proxy network and, throughout over a decade of civil war, committed a host of atrocities against his own people. HTS, the al-Qaeda offshoot Sharaa led under the alias Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, overthrew the Assad regime in December, sending the dictator fleeing to his patrons in Moscow.
As one of several factions actively combatting the Assad regime, HTS made a longstanding enemy of Iran and the Shiite terrorist axis and did not participate in the Assad regime’s crimes – though it engaged in its own atrocities, particularly against groups that Assad did not persecute, such as Christians and Alawite Shiites. HTS massacres of Alawites have been documented to have occurred as recently as this March; Sharaa has attempted to distance himself from the violence.
Sharaa told Syrians in his address that he had spent the past six months of his rule working alongside his jihadist officials “to preserve internal unity and civil peace, impose security, restrict weapons, integrate factions into the Ministry of Defense, form the government,” and other priorities,” according to the official translation published by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). He emphasized his efforts to convince the international community, and particularly Middle East neighbors, to help him cement his control over the country – and convince the West not to crush his movement.
In conversations with leaders in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and other neighboring countries, Sharaa said that Syrians “witnessed the eagerness of our brotherly countries and discovered that the entire world loves Syria and cares about [it].” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he said, had in particularly “promised me to do his utmost to seek the lifting of sanctions on Syria.”
“I saw in his eyes and the eyes of his people his great love for Syria and his insightful vision for its economic future,” Sharaa added.
“Prince Mohammed bin Salman has fulfilled his promise, [Turkish] President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan has fulfilled his love, Prince Tamim [of Qatar] has fulfilled his loyalty,” Sharaa narrated, “Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed [of UAE] has fulfilled his eagerness, and all the other rulers have fulfilled their feelings.”
“President Trump, thankfully, responded to this love,” he asserted. “The decision to lift the sanctions was a courageous and historic one, alleviating the suffering of the people, aiding their renaissance, and laying the foundations for stability in the region.”
Sharaa credited the tremendous suffering of the Syrian people under the Assad regime – which actively tortured, persecuted, and engaged in mass killings of civilians – for helping lead to an end to sanctions.
“My people, your unity, your love for your country, your sacrifices for it, your suffering in the camps, the blood of martyrs and detainees,” Sharaa said, “your expression of joy for the new Syria, and your rallying around its leadership have had a significant impact on influencing international opinion on Syria.”
Sharaa went on to invite international investors to do business in Syria and promise to keep Syria from being used as a proxy platform for foreign political interests. In an apparent barb at Iran, whose leaders had used the Assad regime to expand its influence in the region for years, and Assad’s allies in Russia, Sharaa asserted that “the divisions that have torn us apart have always been the result of foreign interventions, and today we collectively reject them.”
“Syria will no longer be an arena for power struggles, nor a platform for foreign ambitions,” he declared.
HTS declared Sharaa the president of the country in January. Sharaa himself has stated that Syria is far from a return to democracy, however, and that he does not anticipate the possibility of holding free and fair elections for up to four years due to the desperate need to rehabilitate entire Syrian cities destroyed by the Syrian Civil War, which began in 2011. Sharaa has stated, however, that HTS as an organization would “certainly” be “dissolved,” as its objected was the overthrow of the Assad regime. Trump’s announcement of lifting sanctions on the state of Syria does not appear to extend to lifting sanctions on HTS, which remains on the Foreign Terrorist Organization list at press time.
Trump expressed overwhelmingly positive sentiments following his meeting with Sharaa.
“Young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter,” Trump said of the HTS chief. “He’s got a real shot at holding it together. He’s a real leader. He led a charge and he’s pretty amazing.”
“I felt very strongly that this would give them a chance. It’s not going to be easy anyway, so gives them a good strong chance. And, it was my honor to do so,” he added.
