Trump Meets Syria’s Al-Sharaa

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Top of the Agenda

Trump met with Syria’s interim leader and said he would lift sanctions and explore normalizing relations in what is a major policy shift. Trump announced the sanctions relief yesterday and met with interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa today in Saudi Arabia. Countries such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey had called for the United States to ease sanctions on Syria to support reconstruction after its civil war ended last December. The country deserves “a chance at greatness,” Trump said.

What it means for Damascus. 

• While some wealthy countries have relaxed sanctions on Syria since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime, U.S. restrictions continued to bite. Facing severe financial isolation, Syria’s economy shrank to less than half its size since the civil war began in 2011. Nine out of ten Syrians live in poverty, a recent report by the UN Development Program said. 
• Trump also urged al-Sharaa to normalize ties with Israel after years of tensions. Israel has opposed granting Syria sanctions relief and escalated its military presence in the country in recent months.

More news from Riyadh. 

• Saudi Arabia will buy nearly $142 billion worth of U.S. military equipment and invest $20 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the United States, according to the White House. Washington said Riyadh was investing a total of $600 billion in the United States, though the White House listed deals totaling less than half that amount.
• U.S. officials are considering an Iranian proposal to create a joint venture to enrich uranium with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, unnamed Iranian officials told the New York Times. A spokesperson for U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff denied that the proposal was made in talks last weekend, while Oman’s foreign minister said the talks included “useful and original ideas.”
• While Trump has encouraged Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israel, the country’s support for Palestinian statehood amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war appears to have blocked any such move for now.

“According to the UN, [Syria’s] economy on its current trajectory will not return to its pre-conflict GDP levels for nearly six decades. Without short-term economic assistance—particularly through the easing of the sanctions that outside powers placed on the Assad regime—the situation will likely worsen, making it harder for the new government to build both a functioning bureaucracy and security apparatus.”

—International Crisis Group’s Jerome Drevon, Foreign Affairs

Across the Globe

Israel intensifies Gaza strikes. Israel bombarded the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis yesterday in an effort to kill senior Hamas official Mohammed Sinwar, unnamed Israeli officials told the New York Times. Around the same time, Gaza’s health ministry said at least six people were killed in a strike on a hospital. Israeli strikes today killed at least seventy people across Gaza, local health authorities said.

Egypt cuts canal fees. Large ships will get a 15 percent discount on passage fees for the Suez Canal for ninety days, the canal authority said yesterday. The move is intended to encourage more traffic given the relative stability in the Red Sea region after the United States and Yemen’s Houthi rebels reached a truce. Monthly revenue from the Suez Canal has dropped by more than half since the Houthis’ current campaign against international ships began in late 2023.

Taiwan’s nuclear power plants. Taiwan’s legislature amended its nuclear regulations to allow nuclear power plants to apply for licenses to operate twenty years beyond the previous forty-year limit. The re-embrace of nuclear power comes the same month that the country is closing its last functioning reactor; concerns about energy independence and rising demand prompted the switch.

Uruguay remembers Mujica. Former President José Mujica died yesterday at the age of eighty-nine. A left-wing guerrilla in his youth, Mujica oversaw the decriminalization of abortion and the legalization of both same-sex marriage and marijuana—the latter being a step that Uruguay took before any other country in the world. He is also remembered for promoting civil democratic debate.  

Uganda’s push to empower military courts. The government introduced a bill in the legislature yesterday that would allow military courts to try civilians, even after Uganda’s top court ruled that would be unconstitutional. Such trials would occur in cases such as illegal possession of military equipment. Human rights groups have long said that the current Yoweri Museveni administration uses military courts to politically target opponents.

Brazil-China agreements. The two countries signed more than thirty bilateral agreements during Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s visit to Beijing, which concluded yesterday. China said it would invest more than $4 billion across Brazilian industries such as cars, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors. In a meeting with Latin American and Caribbean countries yesterday, Beijing also announced $9 billion in new credit to the region. 

India, Pakistan expel diplomats. Pakistan declared an Indian diplomatic staffer persona non grata yesterday after India expelled a Pakistani diplomat earlier in the day. India said the diplomat was engaged in “activities not in keeping with his official status,” and unnamed Indian foreign ministry officials quoted in Indian Express said he was linked with recent arrests in India’s border region with Pakistan. Pakistan accused the Indian diplomat of espionage.

France’s nuclear umbrella. Paris is open to discussing the deployment of its nuclear weapons elsewhere in Europe, President Emmanual Macron told broadcaster TF1 yesterday. He said that France would not pay for other countries’ security, and that the French presidency would retain decision-making power over bomb usage. U.S. nuclear warheads are currently stationed across Europe, but Trump has said he wants European countries to take more responsibility for their own security.

What’s Next

• Today, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese begins the first state visit of his current term in Indonesia.
• Today, NATO defense chiefs meet in Brussels.
• Tomorrow, South Korea hosts a ministerial meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group.