JAKARTA - US President Donald Trump met with Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia and urged him to normalize relations with arch-enemy Israel.
Trump previously announced that he would lift all sanctions against the government led by the Islamist group.
Trump met Ahmed al-Sharaa who once pledged allegiance to al Qaeda and seized power as a leader of a group Washington called a terrorist organization, before a summit between the United States and Arab Gulf countries.
Reported by Reuters on Wednesday, May 14, photos posted on Saudi state television showed them shaking hands in front of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MbS.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan joined Trump and MbS virtually at the meeting, Turkey's Anadolu news agency Anadolu reported.
Trump urged Sharaa to join the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco, which normalize relations with Israel under the US-brokered Abrahamic Agreement in 2020, White House press secretary posted on X.
The United States also hopes Saudi Arabia will join the Abrahamic Agreement, but discussions stalled after the Gaza war broke out and the kingdom insisted there would be no normalization without the Palestinian state.
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Trump on Tuesday said Saudi Arabia would join the agreement in its own time.
Despite concerns in some of his government's sectors over the relationship between Syrian leaders and al Qaeda, Trump said he would lift sanctions against Syria in major policy changes.
He also said Washington was exploring the normalization of relations with the Syrian government which began with its meeting with Sharaa.
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