Trump was set to meet Wednesday in Saudi Arabia with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the onetime insurgent who last year led the overthrow of former leader Bashar Assad. He said the effort at rapprochement came at the urging of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi de facto ruler, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

President Donald Trump hailed the Syrian leader today after their meeting, hours after cancelling sanctions on the country

Trump's move to lift sanctions sparked jubilation in Damascus, but can curbs on the war-torn nation be swiftly eased to aid economic reconstruction?

In December, a consortium of rebel factions led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham unexpectedly toppled the dictator Bashar al-Assad, whose family had ruled Syria for five decades. The new regime in Damascus inherited a country ruined by a 13-year civil war.

Ankara, in line with its own security and threat assessments in the region, is open to addressing any issue that would serve bilateral cooperation with Damascus, say diplomatic sources - Anadolu Ajans

The EU said that it would monitor developments in Syria to see ... announced it was lifting sanctions on a dozen Syrian entities, including government departments and state-run media outlets.

Instability in Syria could pose security risks for Europe, according to a draft internal EU counter-terrorism document seen by Reuters warning that the overall terror threat level remains high.