The president of the United States Donald Trump promised to do everything possible to make Syria a successafter a historic meeting at the White House with the Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaaa former al-Qaeda commander who, until recently, was sanctioned by Washington as a foreign terrorist and blacklisted by the FBI. Al-Sharaa’s journey represented the first visit by a Syrian president to the White House since Damascus gained independence from France in 1946: speaking to journalists, Trump praised him as a “strong leader” and expressed confidence in him.
For the new government in Damascus, one of the main objectives of the summit was complete removal of the most severe US sanctions. Objective missed for now, but al-Sharaa has received an extension 180 days of the suspension of the application of the so-called sanctions of Caesar Actwhich only the American Congress has the power to revoke altogether. The significance of the visit, however, goes beyond mere economic calculation and encompasses decades of history, between America and the Middle East.
Syria and the United States: the story of a complicated relationship
From 1946, the year of Syrian independence from the French mandate, to today, relations between Syria and the United States have been marked by ups and downs. The relationships remained cordial until the end of the 1940s, when United States intervened in an attempt to install the Syrian military leader Husni al-Za’imwho seemed more willing to collaborate with theWest compared to Nationalist Party who governed the country. A further deterioration occurred with the rise of the Egyptian president Gamal Abd al-Nasser in 1954: Damascus came closer to his vision of Arab nationalism And pan-Arabism anti-Western function. With the formation of RAU (United Arab Republic) between Egypt and Syria in 1958, Washington severed its relations with the Syrian government.
The bonds were re-established after the dissolution of the Republic in 1961, but they remained cold. Distrust of Damascus was common among US officials, who were accustomed to considering it a satellite of the Soviet Union in the region and the incidents along the Israeli border contributed to fueling suspicions, up to the Six Day War of 1967. Then, the Israeli army managed to defeat Egypt, Syria and Jordan and Israel moved further closer to the United States, after receiving their military supportwhile theSoviet Union supplied armaments to Egypt and Syria.
The rise to power of the new Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad (1971) brought embassies back into operation in 1974: in the same year, Richard Nixon visited Damascus in the first official visit by a US president to Syria. The summit succeeded in re-establish diplomatic tiesbut little was achieved in the way of peace between Syria and Israel. Between the 1980s and 1990s, relations continued to be unstable, moving between Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) and the invasion of Kuwait by the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in August 1990: on the latter occasion one was formed US-led coalition to expel his army, with the Syria who became an important ally.
Under the presidency of Bill Clintonthe fragile cooperation between the two countries failed again: while the US president tried to reach a peace agreement in the Middle Easthad to clash with Assad’s opposition. The coming to power of his son Bashar al-Assad did not change the conflictual nature of relations: the “war on terror” that the United States launched at the beginning of the 2000s further soured relations, with Damascus being considered complicit with armed groups in the Middle East (since 1979 Washington had already included the country among the state sponsors of terrorism).
This clash resulted in the imposition of heavy economic sanctions against Syria, which further increased in 2011 after the outbreak of the civil war in the country and the regime’s brutal repression. Washington also responded on the ground, providing support to opposition forces, leading Assad to further consolidate relations with US adversaries such as Iran and Russia.
Trump receives al-Sharaa: what will change now?
After the fall of Bashar al-Assad in 2024 and the rise to power of al-Sharaa, Syria has completely changed its path at a diplomatic level, moving away from Iran and Russia and moving closer to Türkiyeto the Gulf countries and above all to Washington. The new Syrian leader has declared his willingness to participate in any peace initiative regional proposed by Trump, an opening that could lead to a peace between Syria and Israel and to the normalization of relations between the two countries, hostile since 1948.
The United States is in fact reportedly mediating talks on a possible security pact between Syria and Israel (which however remains wary against al-Sharaa’s previous militant ties) and are reportedly planning to establish a military presence at an air base of Damascus. For Syria and the United States, therefore, a window of stability could open.
If the bet on al-Sharaa were to fail, however, Washington would risk finding itself with an unstable ally in the heart of the Levant and pushing Damascus once again towards Moscow and Tehran. However, if the bet worked, Syria could become the central piece of a new regional order – with a former jihadist commander transformed into an essential interlocutor for the West.
