Trump announced Syrian sanctions relief alongside a $142bn arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Key US politics stories from Tuesday 13 May 2025 at a glance
Donald Trump has announced plans to lift sanctions on Syria after holding talks with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, describing it as an effort to “give them a chance at greatness”.
The announcement came as the White House also confirmed that Trump would meet with Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former rebel commander whose forces helped overthrow Bashar al-Assad in 2024. It would be the first face-to-face meeting between a US president and a Syrian leader since 2000, when Bill Clinton met with the late leader Hafez al-Assad in Geneva.
