How Trump Lifting Syria Sanctions Could Transform The Middle East

President Donald Trump vowed Tuesday to lift sanctions on Syria, arguing that removing penalties imposed on the former dictatorship would give the new leadership a chance — despite its leader’s terrorist history.

Delivering a speech in Saudi Arabia during his high-stakes Middle East tour, Trump said the act would give Syria “a chance at greatness.”

“In Syria, which has seen so much misery and death, there is a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace,” Trump said. “That’s what we want to see.”

The next day, Trump met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whom he described as a “young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.”

The meeting between Trump and Shaara was the first meeting between an American president and a Syrian leader in 25 years.

Former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was toppled by al-Shaara and his U.S.-designated terrorist organization, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), in December.

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While the move was praised by Middle Eastern leaders, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, experts say the United States must be careful.

Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), who traveled to Syria in early April and met with Sharaa, said he supports Trump’s move but has reservations about Sharaa.

“I fully support President Trump’s actions to lift the sanctions on Syria,” Stutzman told The Daily Wire. “I applaud his resetting of the table in the Middle East to unlock the full economic potential of the Syrian people. I believe we should engage with President al-Sharaa with reservations, but still give his country the opportunity to change as we have for others in the past.”

Diliman Abdulkader, the founder of American Friends of Kurdistan, said lifting of sanctions is a “positive step” that will help minorities in Syria, but the United States “must proceed with caution.”

“It will certainly benefit ordinary Syrians and minorities like the Kurds, Christians, Alawites, Druze,” Abdulkader told The Daily Wire. “The Kurds in the northeast can finally use the resources in their territory in the international market to benefit the people. But sanctions relief must remain conditional on Sharaa and his circle.”

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During his meeting with Sharaa, Trump urged the Syrian leader to join the Abraham Accords, which establish normalized relations between Israel and Arab signatories.

“I told [Sharaa], I hope you’re going to join [the Abraham Accords] once you’re straightened out and he said yes,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “But they have a lot of work to do.”

While Sharaa has reportedly signaled his openness to joining, Syria has had tense relations with Israel, attacking the regime over concerns it was persecuting its Druze minority. Israel, which has a sizable Druze community with many members who serve in the Israeli Defense Forces, vowed to protect the Syrian Druze from any harm and has shipped humanitarian aid to Druze villages since Sharaa came to power.

Abdulkader said that the United States previously had a $10,000,000 bounty on Sharaa “for a reason” and that “pretending he has changed is wishful thinking.”

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Sharaa, who was once affiliated with Al-Qaeda and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had an FBI bounty for almost a decade before it was lifted in 2024.

Since Sharaa has come to power, minorities in Syria have faced sectarian violence and mass killings, including hundreds of Alawites in March.

“Since Jolani has controlled Damascus, Christians, Alawites and Druze have all been slaughtered in a span of a few months,” Abdulkader, who is Kurdish, said. “The Kurds have signed a fragile deal with Damascus backed by the U.S. and the only reason they have not been targeted is because they have their own forces.”

Jonathan Schanzer, the Senior Vice President for Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said he thinks the sanctions were lifted too early.

“If things go badly, today paved the way for a Muslim Brotherhood-Sunni jihad state in the heart of the Levant,” Schanzer told The Daily Wire.

If removing sanctions proves to be a wise decision, Schanzer argues it could help shift Syria away from Turkish influence, which has raised concerns about the safety of Syria’s Kurdish minority — long persecuted by Turkey.