Trump says sanctions on Syria will be lifted

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would lift US sanctions on Syria, throwing an economic lifeline to a country devastated by nearly 14 years of civil war and decades of dictatorship under the Assad family.

Trump was expected to meet for the first time with Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Shara, on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, where the American leader is making the first major state visit of his second term. al-Shara led the rebel alliance that ousted President Bashar al-Assad in Syria in December.

The US president made the surprise announcement to end sanctions as he addressed a business forum in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where the crowd erupted in cheers and gave him a standing ovation.

The decision represents a change for Syria, breaking the economic stranglehold on a country seen as critical to the stability of the Middle East.

“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 in Syria.”

Across Syria, people poured into the streets of major cities to cheer the news they hope will alleviate the crushing poverty that most of the population faces.

Syria’s foreign minister, Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, hailed the move as “a new beginning on the path to reconstruction” and praised Saudi Arabia as the “voice of reason and wisdom” in the region. He did not mention the United States directly.

Since al-Assad’s ouster, Syrians have argued that the fall of the regime should bring an end to sanctions.

Many of the sanctions were put in place in response to the Assad government’s brutal crackdown on an uprising that began in 2011 and descended into a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands.

Trump said he had come to the decision after speaking with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who backed the anti-Assad insurgency, and Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

Trump has been trying to drum up Saudi investment in the United States, and the Saudi prince said this week that he would work to increase Riyadh’s total pledge to $1 trillion from $600 billion, as the president requested.

“I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions on Syria,” Trump said on Tuesday, speaking in front of giant projections of the US and Saudi flags to an audience seated beneath a massive chandelier. “Oh, what I do for the crown prince,” he added, drawing laughter from the enthusiastic crowd.