Trump Tower Damascus? Syria seeks to charm US President for sanctions relief

DAMASCUS/WASHINGTON – A Trump Tower in Damascus, a detente with Israel, and US access to Syria’s oil and gas are part of Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s strategic pitch to try to get face time with US President Donald Trump during his trip to the Middle East, according to several sources familiar with the push to woo Washington.

American pro-Trump activist Jonathan Bass, who on April 30 met Mr Sharaa for four hours in Damascus, along with Syrian activists and Gulf Arab states, has been trying to arrange a landmark – if highly unlikely – meeting between the two leaders this week on the sidelines of Mr Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Syria has struggled to implement conditions set out by Washington for relief from US sanctions, which keep the country cut off from the global financial system and make economic recovery extremely challenging after 14 years of grinding war.

Mr Bass hopes that getting Mr Trump into a room with Mr Sharaa, who still remains a US-designated terrorist over his Al-Qaeda past, could help soften the Republican US President and his administration’s thinking on Damascus and cool an increasingly tense relationship between Syria and Israel.

Part of the bet for the effort is based on Mr Trump’s history of breaking with longstanding US foreign policy taboos, such as when he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the demilitarised zone between North Korea and South Korea in 2019.

“Sharaa wants a business deal for the future of his country,” Mr Bass said, noting it could cover energy exploitation, cooperation against Iran and engagement with Israel.

“He told me he wants a Trump Tower in Damascus. He wants peace with his neighbours. What he told me is good for the region, good for Israel,” said Mr Bass.

Mr Sharaa also shared what he saw as a personal connection with Mr Trump: both have been shot at, narrowly surviving attempts on their lives, Mr Bass said.

Syrian officials and a presidential media official did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr Sharaa spoke with Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed Salman on May 11, according to the Syrian presidency.

A person close to Mr Sharaa said afterwards a Trump-Sharaa meeting remained possible in Saudi Arabia, but would not confirm whether Mr Sharaa had received an invitation.

“Whether or not the meeting takes place won’t be known until the last moment,” the person said.

‘Push under way’

To be clear, a Trump-Sharaa meeting during the US President’s visit to the region is widely seen as unlikely, given Mr Trump's packed schedule, his priorities and lack of consensus within his team on how to tackle Syria.

A source familiar with ongoing efforts said a high-level Syria-US meeting was set to take place in the region during the week of Mr Trump’s visit, but that it would not be between Mr Trump and Mr Sharaa.

“There is definitely a push under way,” said Mr Charles Lister, head of the Syria Initiative at the Middle East Institute.

“The idea is that getting to Trump directly is the best avenue because there are just too many ideologues within the administration to get past.”

Washington is yet to formulate and articulate a coherent Syria policy, but the administration has increasingly been viewing relations with Damascus from a perspective of counter-terrorism, three sources including a US official familiar with the policy-making said.

That approach was illustrated by the make-up of the US delegation in a meeting in April between Washington and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani in New York, which included a senior counter-terrorism official from the US State Department, two of the sources said.

US officials conveyed to Mr Shibani that Washington found steps taken by Damascus to be insufficient, particularly on the US demand to remove foreign fighters from senior posts in the army and expel as many of them as possible, the sources said.

The US Treasury has since conveyed its own demands on the Syrian government, bringing the number of conditions to more than a dozen, one of the sources said.

The US State Department declined to disclose who attended the meeting from the US side and said it does not comment on private diplomatic discussions.

White House National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt said the actions of the Syrian interim authorities would determine the future US support or possible sanctions relief.

‘Olive branch’

A key aim of Syria’s overtures to Washington is communicating that it poses no threat to Israel, which has escalated air strikes in Syria since the country’s rebels-turned rulers ousted former strongman Bashar al-Assad in 2024.

Israel’s ground forces have occupied territory in south-western Syria while the government has lobbied the US to keep Syria decentralised and isolated.

Israel has said it aims to protect Syrian minority groups. Syria has rejected the strikes as escalatory.

Mr Sharaa last week confirmed indirect negotiations with Israel aimed at calming tensions, after Reuters reported that such talks had occurred via the UAE.

In a separate effort, Mr Bass said Mr Sharaa told him to pass messages between Syria and Israel that may have led to a direct meeting between Israeli and Syrian officials.

But Israel soon resumed strikes, including one near the presidential palace, which it framed as a message to Syria’s rulers to protect the country’s Druze minority amid clashes with Sunni militants.

“Sharaa sent the Israelis an olive branch. Israel sent missiles,” Mr Bass said.

“We need Trump to help sort this relationship out.” REUTERS