Trump Rejects Netanyahu's Push to Maintain Syria Sanctions

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - US President Donald Trump has reportedly rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's request to maintain sanctions on Syria, Israeli media reported on Wednesday, as reported by Anadolu.

Netanyahu visited Washington last month and asked Trump not to lift US sanctions on Syria, the Times of Israel news portal reported, citing an Israeli official.

The official claimed that Israel's request was made out of concerns about cross-border attacks from Syria.

However, Trump said on Tuesday during the Saudi-US Investment Forum 2025 in Riyadh that he would order the lifting of "brutal and crippling" US sanctions on Syria to give the country "a chance to be great."

The US president also held his first meeting with his Syrian counterpart, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Riyadh. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attended the meeting, which was also joined virtually by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"We are currently exploring normalizing relations with the new Syrian government...starting with my meeting with President Ahmad al-Sharaa," Trump said at a US-Gulf summit in Riyadh.

There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu's office on the report.

The shift in US policy toward Syria is another example of Trump's defiance of Israeli policy toward the Arab country.

After the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing a demilitarized buffer zone, a move that violated a 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria.

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