US President Donald Trump has met Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa on the sidelines of the GCC summit in Riyadh. Trump confirmed that he will lift sanctions on Syria to give the country a fresh start after the fall of the Assad government.
United States President Donald Trump says Washington is considering the normalisation of ties with Damascus after he met Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the first such encounter between the two nations’ leaders in 25 years.
Trump made the announcement on Wednesday at a meeting with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leaders in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, during which he also said the US will drop “all sanctions” against Syria.
“With the support of the great leaders in this room, we are currently exploring normalising relations with Syria’s new government,” Trump said, confirming his brief meeting with al-Sharaa.
The “cessation of sanctions” will give Syria “a fresh start”, Trump said.
“We will be dropping all sanctions.”
The US president said he conferred with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday about the lifting of sanctions.
He said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani in Turkiye to further discuss US-Syria relations.
In a statement, the White House said that during the meeting, Trump asked al-Sharaa to deport Palestinians it described as “terrorists”, “sign onto the Abraham Accords with Israel” and “assume responsibility for ISIS detention centres in northeast Syria.”
On Tuesday night, Trump had announced he was lifting sanctions on the war-battered country, drawing a huge applause from Arab leaders and celebrations in the streets across Syria.
Trump’s announcement marks a major turn of events for a country still adjusting to life after more than 50 years of iron-gripped rule of the al-Assad family.
Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December after a lightning offensive by opposition fighters led by al-Sharaa’s forces.
Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Riyadh, described Trump’s announcement and his meeting with al-Sharaa as significant developments.
“This is a massive breakthrough, giving the new authorities in Syria more legitimacy internationally,” our correspondent said.
He said Trump’s decision would likely also pave the way for the GCC to commit more financial aid to the authorities in Syria, noting that US sanctions had previously held them back from investing.
Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, who is reporting from Damascus, said the meeting between Trump and al-Sharaa, which lasted for 33 minutes, was a major diplomatic breakthrough for Saudi Arabia.
“For the first time in 25 years, a Syrian president has met with an American president. That in itself is very historic.”
While ties between the US and Syria is at an “all-time high”, our correspondent said that it would be “very, very difficult” for Damascus to agree on Trump’s demand for Syria to sign on to the Abraham Accord with Israel.
After a short flight, Trump has now arrived in Qatar’s capital Doha, where he will participate in a state visit with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and other officials.
Qatar, a key US ally, is expected to announce hundreds of billions of dollars in investments in the US.
While the precise details of the investments Qatar plans to announce were unclear, Qatar Airways was expected to announce a deal to buy about 100 widebody jets from Boeing, according to the Reuters news agency.
Trump’s first two days of a four-day swing through the Gulf region have been marked by lavish ceremonies and business deals, including a $600bn commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the US and $142bn in US arms sales to the kingdom.
Following his visit to Qatar, Trump will fly to Abu Dhabi to meet the UAE leaders on Thursday.
On Tuesday, brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez were resentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The brothers have spent 35 years in prison after they were arrested for killing their parents with a shotgun in 1989.
So what happened to the brothers, and could they be freed?
On August 20, 1989, Lyle, then 21 and Erik, then 18, fired multiple shotgun rounds at their parents, Jose Menendez and Mary “Kitty” Louise, in their Beverly Hills mansion, killing them. The brothers were arrested in 1990.
The brothers’ lawyers said that they were driven to murder because Jose had sexually abused them for years, and Kitty had enabled this behaviour while emotionally abusing them. Prosecutors, however, had argued that the intent behind the murders was malicious and that the brothers wanted to inherit their parents’ multimillion-dollar fortune. Jose worked as a music and film executive and was also the head of the successful record label RCA, which had signed artists such as Duran Duran.
A 1994 trial resulted in a hung jury. In 1996, the brothers were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole.
The case became fodder for American popular culture references, including in comedy dramas like Gilmore Girls and 30 Rock. A new generation of Americans were introduced to the case last year with the release of the nine-part Netflix biopic called Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which tried to depict the murders and the circumstances leading up to them from both the parents’ and the brothers’ perspectives. A separate documentary on the case was also released a month after the Netflix show.
Public calls for their release from the general public, their family members, alongside celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Rosie O’Donnell, grew louder, and a TikTok movement sprang up after the release of the show and documentary.
Currently, the brothers are being held at the Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California.
The brothers were resentenced under California’s youthful offender statute. This applies to those who have committed a crime under the age of 26 and it immediately makes them eligible for parole once they serve half of their term.
The resentencing was one of three possible paths to freedom sought by the brothers. The other two included clemency granted by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who had ordered a parole board to assess whether the brothers would pose a danger to society; and a new trial, an option opposed by the office of Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman. The brothers’ lawyers filed a motion in May 2023, detailing new evidence and seeking a new trial.
Judge Michael Jesic of Los Angeles Superior Court resentenced the Menendez brothers. This decision came after a daylong hearing where their family members testified before the court in favour of the brothers’ release.
While Jesic said that their crime was “horrific,” he said it was “amazing” how the brothers had rehabilitated themselves in prison. “It’s something I’ve never seen before,” Jesic said.
Anamaria Baralt, 54, the brothers’ first cousin, told the court on Tuesday that the brothers were “universally forgiven” by both sides of the family. “They are different men from the boys that they were when they committed these crimes,” Baralt said.
Other family members said the brothers should receive credit for their rehabilitation while in prison. They cited Green Space, Lyle’s 2018 prison beautification project, alongside the role Erik played in providing hospice care to fellow inmates.
Now 57 and 54 years old, Lyle and Erik addressed the court on Tuesday through videolink from the prison in San Diego and took responsibility for their actions. “My crime was not just criminal. It was wrong. It was immoral. It was cruel and it was vicious,” Erik said. “Today, 35 years later, I am deeply ashamed of who I was,” said Lyle.
However, prosecutor Habib Balian said he was not convinced by the family members’ testimonies and argued that the court could not be confident that the brothers would not commit another violent crime. “We know … what they are capable of doing,” he said.
In recent years, new evidence has emerged that defence lawyers argue substantiates claims of the brothers enduring sexual abuse at the hands of Jose.
This includes a letter Erik wrote to his cousin, detailing his father’s sexual abuse when he was 17 years old.
Additionally, Roy Rossello, who was a boy band member in the 1980s, publicly revealed that Jose sexually assaulted him in a 2023 documentary series on Peacock. Rossello’s band was called Menudo and the documentary series is called Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.
The emergence of new evidence was a trigger for the brothers to explore new avenues to secure their release.
While the brothers were initially sentenced, back in 1996, without the possibility of parole, their new sentence allows for parole. This means that they can be released before their sentence is over.
Before they can be freed, they have to make a case for why they should be released before the state parole board. The brothers will remain imprisoned until then, and it is now up to the state parole board and California Governor Newsom to decide their fate.
The Arab world stands at a crossroad – a moment of truth that hinges on the region’s unified leadership and moral clarity. As President Trump arrives in the Gulf this week, seeking investments and strategic partnerships, the opportunity for regional peace and security is overwhelmingly clear. The Arab leaders should explain clearly to President Trump that peace and economic development in the Middle East are within reach and depend on one critical condition: The admission of Palestine to the United Nations as its 194th member state.
For this to become a reality, the United States must lift its veto on Palestine’s entry to the UN. As the President meets with regional partners, he should hear an unambiguous message from his counterparts: All Arab partnerships with the US and of course with Israel are contingent upon a lasting peace through the two-state solution, which the US can bring about.
What is at stake is not simply a diplomatic negotiation. The two-state solution is a practical imperative and a test of international resolve. There can be no peace in the region, and no long-term development, if Israel continues to maraud its way through Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and others. Israel must be compelled – through diplomacy – to live within its own borders, and to allow Palestine to live within its legal borders, those of June 4, 1967. If the US backs the admission of Palestine to the UN, this will happen.
The stakes could not be higher. The US would receive a windfall of investments. The Middle East would achieve normalcy and the basis for a surge of economic development, and both Israel and Palestine would live in peace.
The Trump administration, in a significant departure from previous administrations, is moving towards a foreign policy centred on pragmatic deal-making diplomacy.
Under his guidance, diplomatic negotiation channels were opened with Iran – as both countries enter their fourth round of negotiations in Oman regarding nuclear talks. President Trump has repeatedly stated his willingness to reach consensus: “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran”, and is even willing to meet Iran’s president. Similarly, the US reached a ceasefire agreement with the Houthis in Yemen last week, an encouraging step for both global trade and stability. Another bold diplomatic manoeuvre is the US direct negotiations with Hamas, which resulted in the release of captive Edan Alexander.
It has become increasingly clear that President Trump holds US strategic interests above all else, and that he correctly views peace as his country’s overarching strategic interest. This translates into true potential for peace in the Middle East.
The foes of peace in Israel’s extremist government want us to believe that there is an intrinsic, almost innate reason for the war on Palestine to continue. In essentially racist terms, Netanyahu and his ilk are arguing that peace with Palestinians, based on Palestinian political self-determination and self-rule, is impossible. The result is Israel’s brutal destruction and de facto annexation of Gaza and Israel’s ongoing war on Palestinians in the West Bank.
Netanyahu’s government has two main interests: Continuing the war in Gaza and the West Bank to block a Palestinian state, and drawing the United States into direct confrontation with Iran. Both are contrary to US interests.
This Israeli government is now completely isolated in the international community. Even the United Kingdom, previously a staunch supporter of Netanyahu’s war, has shifted its position. Minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer stated that the government’s position is “crystal clear”: “We strongly oppose the expansion of Israel’s operations. Any attempt to annex land in Gaza would be unacceptable.”
The vast majority of UN member states have already demonstrated their support for the two-state solution, most recently by adopting the UN General Assembly resolution. The will of the global community is clear: Israel’s illegal occupation must end, and a Palestinian State must be established in accordance with international law. This is possible under the mantle of the United Nations, this upcoming June, during the High-level International Conference on Palestine.
Peace has been the generational clear-cut position of the League of Arab States, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and all regional partners. The Arab Peace Initiative (API), adopted at the Beirut Summit in 2002 and reiterated consistently over the years, demands Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied territory and the establishment of a Palestinian state as the basis for peace and diplomatic normalisation with Israel.
President Trump and the Arab leaders have a historic opportunity this week to end a conflict that has raged for one century. By adopting the two-state solution, Trump would not only bring peace to Israel and Palestine, but also to Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. An agreement between the US and Iran regarding nuclear non-proliferation and an end to US sanctions on Iran would immediately come within reach. Belligerents could lay down their arms, and rebuilding and economic development could come to the forefront. In short, this week offers the extraordinary opportunity for the US and the Arab world to make history, for the benefit of the entire Middle East, including Israel and Palestine, and indeed for the benefit of the entire world.
Celebrations broke out across Syria after President Donald Trump said the United States would lift sanctions on the country.
The Syrian foreign ministry on Tuesday welcomed Trump’s announcement, calling it a “pivotal turning point for the Syrian people, as we seek to emerge from a long and painful chapter of war”.
“The removal of those sanctions offers a vital opportunity for Syria to pursue stability, self-sufficiency, and meaningful national reconstruction, led by and for the Syrian people,” it said in a statement.
In a speech given in Riyadh, the US president said he “will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness”.
US sanctions have isolated Syria from the global financial system and imposed a range of economic restrictions on the government over more than a decade of war in the country.
The lingering sanctions have widely been seen as a major obstacle to Syria’s economic recovery and post-war reconstruction.
Syrians met the news with joy and celebration, with dozens of men, women and children gathering in Damascus’s Umayyad Square. They blasted music while others drove by in their cars, waving Syrian flags.
“My joy is great, this decision will definitely affect the entire country positively. Construction will return, the displaced will return and prices will go down,” said Huda Qassar, a 33-year-old English language teacher, celebrating with her compatriots.
In the northern province of Idlib, Bassam al-Ahmed, 39, said he was very happy about the announcement.
“It is the right of the Syrian people, after 14 years of war and 50 years of the Assads’ oppression, to live through stability and safety,” he said.
