US and Syria aim for 'strategic' ties at talks on next steps

Turkey says US could leave Syria as relations warm after historic Trump meeting

US President Donald Trump meets Syrian leader Ahmad Al Shara in Riyadh on Wednesday. AP

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The United States and Syria hope to build a "strategic relationship", the new Syrian government said on Thursday after a meeting between the two countries' foreign ministers.

The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shaibani met in Turkey to discuss details of the lifting American sanctions, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said.

Together with the Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, they spoke about "improving ties between Damascus and Washington and ways to build a strategic relationship", the ministry said.

The meeting in Antalya came a day after President Donald Trump Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara in Riyadh, coming face to face with a former militant leader who was once an American prisoner. Turkey has emerged as the main non-Arab supporter of Mr Al Shara, who led the offensive that ousted the Assad regime in December.

Mr Trump urged Mr Al Shara to "tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria" and for the country to sign on to the Abraham Accords with Israel, according to the White House.

In a surprise announcement during his Gulf trip, Mr Trump said the US would lift sanctions that were mostly imposed on Bashar Al Assad's fallen regime after its suppression of protests in 2011 that escalated into a civil war.

Celebrations erupted in Damascus after President Trump's announcement of sanctions relief. EPA

However, Mr Rubio cautioned before the meeting that it will be up to Syria's "new leadership to construct a constructive path forwards".

"The hope that the new authorities there will take this opportunity to rebuild that country and take it from being a source of instability to a source of stability," Mr Rubio said.

Mr Fidan suggested on Thursday that a reconciliation between the US and Syria could lead to a full withdrawal of American troops from Syrian territory.

Any decision would depend on Mr Trump's assessment of the situation after he lifted sanctions on the new regime in Syria, he said.

“If the circumstances that caused this army to be in Syria are gone, then too the consequences,” said Mr Fidan. “This is tied to the assessment of Mr Trump to the situation.”

US troops intervened in Syria in 2014 to support the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces in the north-east of the country, near the border with Turkey. The US helped established the SDF as the ground component of its fight with ISIS, drawing the ire of Ankara.

US officials said last month that about 600 troops would be withdrawn from the country, leaving fewer than 1,000 behind. But Mr Trump has not ordered a full withdrawal.

Next stages

Mr Fidan said the US troop presence was one of many issues to be tackled in Syria, but did not say it would specifically be raised on Thursday. “I do not think there will be any problems in the US withdrawing its forces from Syria,” if that was the decision, he said.

In Riyadh on Wednesday, Mr Trump and Mr Shara discussed counter-terrorism co-operation. The meeting was a crucial boost to the fledging order in Damascus and efforts to halt Iranian expansionism in the Middle East.

“We always strive to fight ISIS and other terrorist organisations. We will continue with the same policies in the coming period,” Mr Fidan said.

A European diplomat said the meeting in Riyadh was “not good news for the Kurds in particular”. He said the potential for a US new alliance with Damascus would render the SDF less useful to Washington and make the US more responsive to Turkish demands to dissolve the group, a goal also shared by Mr Al Shara.

In March, Mr Al Shara signed a signed a deal with SDF commander Mazloum Abdi to end hostilities and for all armed groups in eastern Syria to join the new state. Mr Fidan said the deal means that the Kurdish Protection Forces, the main component of the SDF, must disband.