President Donald Trump announced that the United States will end sanctions on Syria and invited Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords during a speech in Riyadh on Tuesday.
“It has been an amazing thing, the Abraham Accords,” Trump said at a Saudi Arabia investment conference. “And it’s my fervent hope, wish, and even my dream that Saudi Arabia, a place I have so much respect for … will soon be joining the Abraham Accords. I think it will be a tremendous tribute to your country.”
Trump negotiated the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, at the end of his first term in office. Now, he is hoping to see Saudi Arabia join it as well.
During lengthy remarks, Trump laid out his vision for the Middle East. Minutes later, he made a second major announcement: He intends to drop sanctions against Syria.
“I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness,” Trump said, adding that the sanctions were “brutal” and “crippling” but “now it’s their time to shine.”
“I say good luck, Syria. Show us something very special like they’ve done in Saudi Arabia,” he added.
In his speech, Trump called for “commerce, not chaos” in the region and criticized previous “Western interventionists” who tried to reshape the Middle East against its will.
“The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation builders, neocons, or liberal nonprofits like those who spent trillions failing to develop Kabul and Baghdad,” Trump said, alluding to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built.”
“You achieved a modern miracle the Arabian way,” Trump said. “That’s a good way.”
The announcements marked the end of a dramatic and controversial day as Trump continues on his second foreign trip in his second term.
Trump arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday morning aboard Air Force One and was joined by several Saudi jets forming an escort around the presidential plane.
During the last half hour of the flight, Saudi F-15 fighter jets appeared on both sides of Air Force One, with six jets eventually accompanying the plane during the final stretch before landing.
The festivities continued from there, with a lavish ceremony and major investment announcements between the two nations. Trump arrived sporting a lavender tie, which matched the stairs he stepped down from Air Force One.
Trump was then greeted by Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who walked with him down a matching lavender runway in the desert heat.
While meeting with Salman, Trump signed a strategic economic partnership agreement, which includes a memorandum of understanding on energy, a letter of intent for future defense capabilities, a memorandum of understanding on mineral resources, a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Justice, and cooperation on space and infectious diseases.
The White House released a fact sheet touting that Saudi Arabia would invest $600 billion in the U.S., though Trump joked with Salman that the figure could be a trillion dollars.
While the two spoke, Trump called Salman a friend and said they had developed a good relationship. He also recalled traveling to Saudi Arabia during his first term.
“I really believe we like each other a lot,” Trump said.
Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia stood in stark contrast to that of his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, who infamously gave MBS a lukewarm fist bump when he visited the country in July 2022. Trump, by contrast, engaged in a marathon handshake session with MBS and Middle East leaders, in establishing a warm tone that carried throughout the day.
Biden called Saudi Arabia a “pariah” during the 2020 campaign, pointing in particular to the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, which the CIA has determined was ordered by bin Salman. Trump has shown no such restraint with his open embrace of MBS and his government.
Accompanying Trump in Riyadh were some of the world’s foremost business and technology executives, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Alphabet Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Palantir CEO Alex Karp, and IBM CEO Arvind Krishna.
Trump officials on the trip included Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Yet despite the investment promises, ethical questions have swirled around Trump during his trip.
Trump announced on Monday that he would accept a $400 million 747 aircraft “free of charge” from Qatar to temporarily replace Air Force One. The gift has raised accusations of misconduct from both sides of the political aisle, including from former rival and Trump administration official Nikki Haley.
“Accepting gifts from foreign nations is never a good practice,” Haley posted on X. “It threatens intelligence and national security. Especially when that nation supports a terrorist organization and allows those terrorist regimes to live on its soil.”
There are also questions about whether Saudi Arabia should be considered a strategic partner given its history of controversies.
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Critics are concerned about what Qatar and Saudi Arabia will want in return for their investments — concerns that Trump has dismissed.
“I could be a stupid person to say, ‘Oh no, we don’t want a free plane,’” Trump told reporters Monday morning before departing the White House. “We give free things out. We’ll take one too, and it helps us out.”
