(Reuters) – Donald Trump has agreed to say hello to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, a White House official said, during the U.S. president’s regional tour that began with a stop in Riyadh.
There were no immediate details about the format of any exchange between Sharaa and Trump, but any meeting will mark a dramatic turnaround for the Syrian president, a former rebel leader who swept to power last year at the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group linked to al Qaeda and designated a terrorist organisation by Washington.
Saudi Arabia, as Trump’s host on the first stop of his regional tour, alongside Qatar and Turkey, both supporters of the new Syrian administration, had been pushing hard for the meeting between Sharaa and the U.S. president, at least four sources had previously told Reuters.
But several sources had said they were cautious about whether it would proceed as they await Trump’s nod of approval.
Sharaa has won support from wealthy Gulf states and Syria’s northern neighbour Turkey as he rebuilds his nation shattered by more than a decade of conflict, but has made slower progress with the West, with only limited success in securing any easing of U.S. sanctions.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Edmund Blair and William Maclean)
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