The meeting came after Trump—who is in the middle of a three-country tour of the Middle East—delivered a speech on Tuesday in which he announced his plan to lift U.S. sanctions on Syria in support of "a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace.”

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday had tea with a former jihadist who until recently had a $10 million US bounty on his head.

The president's decision on sanctions does not mean he's chosen to side with self-described "restraint" advocates over foreign policy hawks in Washington.