US-Syria Meeting

President Donald Trump met with Syria’s leader, interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, in Saudi Arabia yesterday. The meeting was the first between a US president and a Syrian leader since former President Bill Clinton met with Hafez al-Assad in 2000.

The encounter comes on the heels of Trump’s announcement this week that he will lift all US sanctions on Syria. Those sanctions were enacted following the start of the civil war in 2011, and correspond with a tenfold decrease in Syria's exports by 2021. Al-Sharaa—the former leader of an al-Qaida affiliate—led rebel factions in toppling the Assad regime. Trump indicated yesterday al-Sharaa is open to joining Morocco, Bahrain, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates in normalizing ties with Israel; no deal has been announced.

Trump is approaching the end of his four-day Middle East trip, with a final stop today in the United Arab Emirates. He was in Qatar yesterday, where he signed a defense deal, oversaw a $96B purchase of up to 210 Boeing planes, and was gifted a $400M luxury Boeing 747-8 intended to one day serve as Air Force One.