Scant mention of Israel in vision Trump lays out for Middle East on Saudi visit

“Oh, what I would do for the crown prince,” Trump said, of announcing he will lift sanctions on Syria, as a gesture to Mohammed bin Salman.

Mike Wagenheim, RIYADH, Saudi Arabia

(JNS)

After signing agreements with Saudi Arabia worth about $600 billion on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump was expected to tout the deals that evening during a speech in Riyadh at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum. Instead, he broke news announcing a major shift in U.S. foreign policy, by saying that he intended to lift sanctions on Syria, which had been imposed during the regime of Basher Assad.

“In Syria, which has seen so much misery and death, there’s a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace,” Trump told attendees, of the new government of Ahmed al-Sharaa, who leads a U.S.-designated terror group.

“That’s why my administration has already taken the first steps toward restoring normal relations between the United States and Syria for the first time in more than a decade,” Trump said, to some applause.

The U.S. president said that he came to the decision after talking with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness,” Trump said, to the night’s largest ovation. “Oh, what I would do for the crown prince,” he said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) stated earlier in the day that Israel is “extremely concerned about the state of play in Syria.” He also suggested that Congress had a role to play in lifting sanctions on Syria, but Reuters reported that “most sanctions laws passed by Congress, including a 2019 package of stiff sanctions on Syria, include a provision allowing a president to suspend them if he deems it to be in the U.S. national security interest.”

Asked during the U.S. State Department daily press briefing how quickly Trump intends to lift the sanctions on Syria and if Washington will ask the United Nations Security Council to lift its sanctions on al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, Tommy Pigott, the department’s principal deputy spokesperson, said that he had nothing further to add.

Trump is expected to meet with al-Sharaa in Riyadh on Wednesday. The new Syrian leader is scheduled to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later in the week in Turkey.

‘Olive branch’

Jonathan Bass, a Jewish-American businessman who was on hand at the forum in Riyadh, told JNS that he backs the president. “We need to give al-Sharaa oxygen to move forward and bring together his country,” said Bass, who said that he often acts as a diplomatic backchannel and who met with Sharaa recently for four hours. “Everyone’s past has a tendency to haunt them.”

“It’s time for us again to bring an olive branch to the table and stop bombing,” Bass told JNS.

The businessman thinks that the issue of Israeli protection of the Arab Druze minority in Syria is misunderstood. Just as there is progressive left, conservative center and religious right in the United States, the Druze community isn’t monolithic, Bass told JNS.

“No one’s sitting at the same table, so you can’t expect that anybody else has a complete table around them,” he said. “We all need to be active participants. We need to show up, and we need to make a difference in the future of the region.”

Trump appeared to echo that point when he spoke of neocons, liberal groups and “nation builders,” who he said were damaging the region with their failed ideas.

“If the responsible nations of this region seize this moment, put aside your differences and focus on the interests that unite you, then all of humanity will soon be amazed at what they will see,” Trump said.

“My administration stands ready to help Lebanon create a future of economic development and peace with its neighbors,” he added.

‘Hit them hard’

The U.S. president directed harsh words at Tehran. “I’m here today not merely to condemn the past chaos of Iran’s leaders but to offer them a new path and a much better path toward a far better and more hopeful future,” he said. “We will never allow them to threaten America and our allies with terrorism or a nuclear attack.”

Trump also said that the United States had beaten the Houthi rebels in Yemen, although the terror groups denied that it capitulated in a ceasefire.

“Following repeated attacks on American ships and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the United States military launched more than 1,100 strikes on the Houthis in Yemen,” Trump said. “We hit them hard. We got what we came for, and then, we got out.”

Much of the president’s praise was reserved for the Saudi prince, known as MBS, with whom he signed a $142 billion arms deal earlier in the day. “Before our eyes, a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts and tired divisions of the past and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos,” Trump said.

The president said that it is his “fervent hope, wish and even my dream” that Saudi join the Abraham Accords but said that it will do so “in your own time.”

Israel was noticeably absent from Trump’s remarks, but Bass, the Jewish businessman, said that there is some room for a business relationship between the Jewish state and the kingdom above the radar.

“I think that there is a place for American Jews, European Jews. I think that Israelis coming directly for the moment will probably represent a little bit of a challenge, but I think that this community here is very open,” he said, of the Saudis.

Bass thinks that about 300 Jews, mainly non-Israelis, attended the forum.

“I’ve never received any iota of antisemitism in Saudi Arabia,” he told JNS. “These are amongst the most embracing, loving, welcoming people for our community. We need to be part of the future of the region.”

Avraham Berkowitz, another Jewish businessman who attended the forum, told JNS that he was pleased that Trump mentioned the release of Edan Alexander, the dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who was freed from Hamas captivity in Gaza on Monday.

Berkowitz was also pleased that Trump said that “all civilized people must condemn the Oct. 7 atrocities against Israel” and that it drew no hint of condemnation from the Saudi crowd, even as the government has criticized Israel’s prosecution of the war harshly. (That mention of Israel was the only direct reference in Trump’s half an hour remarks.)

Trump is scheduled to attend a Gulf Cooperation Council leaders’ meeting on Wednesday morning before flying to Doha for the second leg of his trip.

Featured Image: U.S. President Donald Trump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud, also known as MBS, at the Royal Court Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. Credit: Daniel Torok/White House.