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President Donald Trump is set to meet Wednesday (May 14, 2025) with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, going face-to-face with the onetime insurgent leader who spent years imprisoned by U.S. forces after being captured in Iraq. File
| Photo Credit: AP
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U.S. President Donald Trump met Wednesday (May 14, 2025) with Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the first such encounter between the two nations’ leaders in 25 years.
The meeting, on the sidelines of Mr. Trump sitting with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, marks a major turn of events for a Syria still adjusting to life after the over 50-year, iron-gripped rule of the Assad family.
It’s also remarkable given Mr. al-Sharaa, under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has ties to al-Qaida and joined insurgents battling US forces in Iraq before entering the Syrian war.
Mr. Trump on Tuesday announced the meeting, saying the U.S. also would move to lift economic sanctions on Syria as well. Syria even before its ruinous civil war that began in 2011 struggled under a tightly controlled socialist economy and under sanctions by the U.S. as being a state-sponsor of terror since 1979.
Published – May 14, 2025 01:13 pm IST
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Trump to meet Syria’s president before heading to Qatar on his Mideast tour
