Trump rejects Netanyahu’s request to keep Syria sanctions: Report

ANKARA

US President Donald Trump has rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request to keep sanctions on Syria, Israeli media said on Wednesday.

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

The official claimed that the Israeli request was made out of concern about the occurrence of cross-border attacks from Syria.

Trump, however, said on Tuesday during the 2025 Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh that he would order the removal of “brutal and crippling” US sanctions on Syria to give that country “a chance at greatness.”

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

“We are currently exploring normalizing relations with Syria’s new government…beginning with my meeting with President Ahmad al-Sharaa,” Trump said during a Gulf-US summit in Riyadh.

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

The US shift on Syria is another instance of Trump defying Israel's policy on the Arab country.

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