US President Donald Trump could reportedly meet his Syrian counterpart Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia next month, the Israeli website I-24 News reported on Wednesday, citing a Syrian source.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and de facto leader Mohammed bin Salman reportedly arranged for the expected meeting to take place, I-24 said.
Trump on Monday announced that he would be visiting Saudi Arabia and possibly other Gulf countries in May.
Sharaa met bin Salman last February, in his first foreign trip since leading a rebel offensive which resulted in the overthrow of longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
A Syrian source told The New Arab’s affiliate website Al-Modon that Saudi Arabia was indeed trying to bring Sharaa and Trump together, but said that there were no guarantees that this would succeed.
The source said that Saudi Arabia wanted to ensure US recognition of Sharaa’s government while persuading Trump to lift sanctions on Syria imposed during the Assad regime’s rule.
The US recently cautiously welcomed the formation of a new Syrian government and played a key role in negotiating an agreement between Sharaa’s government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) which would see the SDF integrate into Syrian state institutions.
However, it has imposed conditions for the lifting of sanctions including the exclusion of foreign fighters from official positions, renouncing “terrorism”, preventing Iran and its proxies from exploiting Syrian territory, ensuring the protection of religious and ethnic minorities, and securing fundamental freedoms for all Syrian citizens.
The US’s ally Israel has launched frequent ground incursions and airstrikes on Syria since Assad’s overthrow, killing dozens of people.
The New Arab reached out to the US State Department for confirmation of the reported Trump-Sharaa meeting but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
