Donald Trump became the first US president in 25 years to meet a Syrian leader on Wednesday after he offered sanctions relief in hopes of offering a new path to the war-battered country.
Trump, in Riyadh on the first state visit of his second term, met with Ahmed al-Sharaa, an erstwhile Islamist guerrilla turned interim president after the December overthrow of longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad.
The two held brief talks ahead of a larger gathering of Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia during Trump's tour of the region, a White House official said.
No US president has met a Syrian leader since Bill Clinton saw Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, in Geneva in 2000 in a failed effort to persuade him to make peace with Israel.
