By Gram Slattery, Pesha Magid and Andrew Mills
DOHA (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump met with Syria’s president in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and urged him to normalise ties with longtime foe Israel after a surprise U.S. announcement that it would lift all sanctions on the Islamist-led government.
Trump then flew to Qatar, where he oversaw the signing of a deal for the Gulf Arab country to buy jets from U.S. manufacturer Boeing.
He did not mention a controversial separate offer by Qatar to donate a Boeing jet to serve as the U.S. president’s official airplane. That would be one of the most valuable gifts ever given to the United States and it has triggered alarm in Washington over its security and ethics implications.
After Trump’s declaration that he would lift sanctions on Syria, which is seeking to rebuild after more than a decade of civil war, he met with interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who swept to power at the head of a group that Washington has called a terrorist organisation and once pledged allegiance to al Qaeda.
Trump told reporters that Sharaa said he would be willing to eventually join the Abraham Accords, a U.S.-brokered 2020 agreement that saw the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco normalize relations with Israel. Syrian officials have signaled an openness to normalize under the right circumstances.
“I told him, ‘I hope you’re going to join when it’s straightened out.’ He said, ‘Yes.’ But they have a lot of work to do,” Trump said, according to a White House pool report.
Photos posted on Saudi state television showed the two men shaking hands in the presence of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump said the meeting with Sharaa, who he described as a young, attractive guy with a very strong past, was “great”.
“He’s got a real shot at holding it together,” said Trump.
ETHICAL CONCERNS OVER BUSINESS DEALS
Trump’s four-day visit highlights the United States’ growing ties to the oil-rich region, where his real-estate company is also developing several projects.
That has raised concerns about a conflict of interest between Trump’s official duties as president and his business interests.
Trump has dismissed ethical concerns about his plan to accept the $400 million luxury plane from Qatar to serve as Air Force One, saying on Monday it would be “stupid” to turn down the generous offer.
Qatar, host of the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, has been working to deepen ties with Trump in his second term after falling on the wrong side of the U.S. president when he was first in office.
In 2017, during Trump’s first term, the tiny but hugely wealthy gas producer was isolated by a diplomatic, trade and air embargo imposed by Gulf states and some other Arab nations which accused Doha of backing terrorism and getting too close to Iran. At the time, Trump’s administration sided with Doha’s rivals.
In Doha, Trump and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani announced deals that the White House said were worth $1.2 trillion. That included an agreement by Qatar Airways to buy Boeing aircraft and GE Aerospace engines.
For some 40 years, Qatar’s “core motivation has always been their concern and their fear that Saudi and the UAE have designs on it and they saw the U.S. as the guarantor of their independence,” said Gerald Feierstein, a former U.S. diplomat with extensive experience in the Gulf.
Trump said the two leaders discussed Iran and the Ukraine-Russia war. “We always had a very special relationship,” Trump said of the emir.
Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia brought a $600 billion commitment from the kingdom to invest in the U.S. and $142 billion in U.S. arms sales to the kingdom.
ISRAELI WORRIES
Trump’s Middle East trip – which does not include a visit to Jerusalem – has fuelled doubts in Israel about where the country stands in Washington’s priorities.
Syria is one of Israel’s biggest foes, and Israeli officials have continued to describe Sharaa as a jihadist, though he severed ties with al Qaeda in 2016. Sharaa first joined the group in Iraq, where he spent five years in a U.S. prison. The United States removed a $10 million bounty on his head in December.
Israel opposes lifting sanctions on Syria, which would clear the way for greater engagement by humanitarian organizations and boost foreign investment. Israel has escalated military strikes in Syria since Sharaa took power after toppling former President Bashar al-Assad in December.
Trump’s administration is also holding nuclear talks with its other enemy, Iran.
The Israeli prime minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump told reporters the fact he has relationships with countries in the Middle East is “very good for Israel”.
Trump’s move to lift sanctions and bring Syria into the Abraham accords could help hold Syria’s former allies, Iran and Russia, at a distance as the new government builds diplomatic and financial ties with the region and the West.
The U.S. also hopes regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia will also join the Abraham Accords, but discussions came to a halt after the Gaza war erupted and the kingdom insists there can be no normalisation without Palestinian statehood.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery, Pesha Magid and Andrew Mills; additional reporting by Jonathan Landay; Writing by Andy Sullivan and Michael Georgy; Editing by Sharon Singleton, William Maclean, Don Durfee, Daniel Wallis and Diane Craft)
