For politically untested Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, it was a seismic, high-profile development: an in-person May 14 meeting with President Trump, a promise to lift economic sanctions on Damascus and an endorsement from Mr. Trump and key Middle Eastern leaders.
Equally important is what the White House believes the 42-year-old Syrian leader can do for the U.S. Some analysts and Syria watchers say it could be a lot, most immediately by helping curb Iranian influence across the region.
“The sanctions relief is definitely going to be the first confidence-building measure between Syria and the U.S. My observation is that al-Sharaa himself has an ambition to be an ally to the U.S. in the region. That’s my reading. He seems quite ambitious,” said Muhammad Bakr Ghbeis, a Harvard Medical School doctor who is president of the nongovernmental organization Citizens for a Secure and Safe America, an influential group of highly educated Syrian Americans that has long pushed for political change inside Syria.
Dr. Ghbeis said in an interview that Mr. al-Sharaa has already proved his skills at navigating the complicated Syrian political landscape, which is rife with adversarial stakeholders and rival factions. Mr. al-Sharaa led the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance that overthrew longtime Syrian dictator and Iranian ally Bashar Assad in a surprise offensive in December.
On Friday, Mr. Trump followed through on the May 14 meeting by easing some sanctions against Syria despite deep misgivings of some in his administration and among key allies, such as Israel, about Mr. al-Sharaa’s past ties to al Qaeda.
The geopolitical calculus for Mr. Trump seems to be that a friendly Syria will help advance U.S. interests by potentially taking part of the counterterrorism burden off U.S. forces.
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Current and former officials have said Iran has lost Syria as a conduit to funnel weapons to regional proxies such as Lebanon-based Hezbollah. Iran-backed militias operating in Syria also could come under greater pressure and may not be able to operate in the country as they have over the past few years.
“Continuing to break that [Iranian] alliance … is another thing that Syria can bring to the table,” Dr. Ghbeis said.
After his meeting with Mr. al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Trump told reporters that he believes the new Syrian leader can unite and transform a country that has been ravaged by more than a decade of civil war and Islamic extremism.
“Young, attractive guy, tough guy. Strong past, very strong past. Fighter. He’s got a real shot at pulling it together,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. al-Sharaa.
The lifting of economic sanctions, analysts say, would be a monumental step in helping Syria rebuild. Removing some of those sanctions will take an act of Congress, but administration officials said they believe it’s the right thing to do. Adam Boehler, the administration’s special envoy for hostage response, told “Fox News Sunday” after Mr. Trump’s Middle East trip that the Syrian sanctions were aimed at the Assad regime, which no longer exists.
“Keep in mind, those sanctions were put on a country led by a different individual. And so, continuing something where you have a new leader, you’ve got to refresh and look at it,” he said.
Mr. Trump expressed his desire for Syria to join the 2020 Abraham Accords and normalize diplomatic relations with Israel. Such a move by Syria, traditionally one of the region’s leading antagonists toward the Jewish state, could be a game changer for the Middle East and America’s network of alliances in the region.
However, expanding the Abraham Accords is a long-term proposition and much more difficult to achieve during Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which has sparked deep anger across the Arab world.
A more immediate hope is that a relatively strong, effective central government in Damascus could pave the way for Mr. Trump to pull the nearly 1,000 U.S. troops out of Syria, a goal dating back to his first term, assuming that an al-Sharaa government is strong enough to keep the Islamic State and other extremist groups at bay.
Some early signs indicate that the al-Sharaa government believes it can manage the extremist threat and related issues.
In March, the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-led alliance that has helped the U.S. battle the Islamic State for the past decade, said it would turn over control of the Al-Hol prison camp to the Syrian government. That camp houses tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children who are family members of suspected Islamic State fighters. Current and former U.S. officials have long warned that the impoverished camp could become a breeding ground for a new generation of extremist fighters.
Dr. Ghbeis, who became a U.S. citizen in 2016 after coming to America on a professional visa before the fighting in Syria began, said the camp can be “managed much better with a Sunni-led government” like the one headed by Mr. al-Sharaa, rather than the Kurdish-led SDF.
Mr. al-Sharaa’s handling of the camp handover and his success or failure in addressing the problems that come with it will be an early test of Mr. Trump’s confidence in the Syrian leader and his new transactional approach to the Middle East.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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