News - Middle East: US President Donald Trump has announced that he would lift the entirety of Washington’s sanctions against Syria after the new administration in the Arab country reportedly proposed making “peace” with the Israeli regime, the US’s closest regional ally.

Trump made the announcement in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday during an ongoing visit to the kingdom.

"Now it is their time to shine. We are taking them (the sanctions) all off. Good luck Syria. Show us something very special,” he said.

The comments came after the head of the administration led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, which overran the country late last year, was reported to have proposed “peace” with Tel Aviv.

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani had also made other overtures like suggesting construction of a “Trump Tower” in Damascus.

The HTS, the Takfiri terrorist group of al-Qaeda’s former branch in Syria, took over the Arab country in December last year amid intense Israeli airstrikes against the nation’s civilian and military infrastructures.

Before the takeover, the group would run a drawn-out and significantly deadly armed campaign against the nation’s former democratically-elected government, which had adopted an outright anti-Israeli stance.

After the takeover, though, the HTS and its chief Jolani began efforts, which observers have defined as, its bid to deflect attention from its past, including by trying to formally communicate with Western states such as France.

Adding to his remarks, Trump said the pending sanction relief would be aimed at ”giving them a chance."

This is while the US would not only decisively withhold such relief from Syria’s former anti-Israeli governments, but also heavily increase coercive economic measures and political pressure against the country.

Also on Tuesday, Trump was asked whether he planned to meet with Jolani in Riyadh on Thursday, to which he answered, "Yes, I think so."

Source: Press TV