Trump says US to lift Syria sanctions, secures $600 billion Saudi deal

(Corrects typo in headline, corrects spelling of al-Shibani in paragraph 7, Yasir in paragraph 21 and Schwarzman in paragraph 23)

By Yousef Saba, Gram Slattery, Pesha Magid and Nafisa Eltahir

RIYADH (Reuters) - President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the U.S. will lift long-standing sanctions on Syria, and secured a $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the United States on a trip to the Gulf.

The U.S. agreed to sell Saudi Arabia an arms package worth nearly $142 billion, according to the White House which called it "the largest defense cooperation agreement" Washington has ever done.

The surprise announcement about sanctions on Syria would be a huge boost for a country that has been shattered by more than a decade of civil war. Rebels led by current President Ahmed al-Sharaa toppled President Bashar al-Assad last December.

Speaking in Riyadh, Trump said he was acting on a request to scrap the sanctions by Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

"Oh what I do for the crown prince," Trump said, drawing laughs from the audience. He said the sanctions had served an important function but that it was now time for the country to move forward.

The United States declared Syria a state sponsor of terrorism in 1979, added sanctions in 2004 and imposed further sanctions after the civil war broke out in 2011.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said on X that the planned move marked a "new start" in Syria's path to reconstruction. Trump has agreed to briefly greet Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, a White House official said.

Trump and the Saudi crown prince signed an agreement covering energy, defense, mining and other areas. Trump has sought to strengthen relations with the Saudis to improve regional ties with Israel and act as a bulwark against Iran.

The agreement covers deals with more than a dozen U.S. defense companies in areas including air and missile defense, air force and space advancement, maritime security and communications, the fact sheet said. The Saudi prince said the deal included investment opportunities worth $600 billion, including deals worth $300 billion that were signed during Trump's visit.

"We will work in the coming months on the second phase to complete deals and raise it to $1 trillion," he said.

Saudi Arabia is one of the largest customers for U.S. arms.

Reuters reported in April the U.S. was poised to offer the kingdom an arms package worth well over $100 billion. 

"I really believe we like each other a lot," Trump said during a meeting with the crown prince, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler. 

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia had discussed Riyadh's potential purchase of Lockheed F-35 jets, two sources briefed on discussions told Reuters, referring to a military aircraft that the kingdom is long thought to have been interested in.

It was not immediately clear whether those aircraft were covered in the deal announced on Tuesday.

Trump, who was accompanied by U.S. business leaders including billionaire Elon Musk, will go on from Riyadh to Qatar on Wednesday and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday. 

He has not scheduled a stop in Israel, a decision that has raised questions about where the close ally stands in Washington's priorities, and the focus of the trip is on investment rather than security matters in the Middle East.

"While energy remains a cornerstone of our relationship, the investments and business opportunities in the kingdom have expanded and multiplied many, many times over," Saudi Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih said.

"As a result ... when Saudis and Americans join forces very good things happen, more often than not great things happen when those joint ventures happen," he said before Trump's arrival.

Trump told the investment forum that relations with Saudi Arabia will be even stronger.

He was shown speaking with Riyadh’s sovereign wealth fund governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser, and Falih as he toured a hall that showed off models for the kingdom’s flashy, multi-billion-dollar development projects.

Trump called the Saudi crown prince a friend and said they have a good relationship, according to a pool report from the Wall Street Journal, adding that Saudi investment would help create jobs in the U.S. 

BIG INVESTMENTS

Business leaders at the investment forum included Larry Fink, the CEO of asset management firm BlackRock; Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of asset manager Blackstone; and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Musk chatted briefly with both Trump and the crown prince, who is otherwise known as MbS, during a palace reception for the U.S. president. Top U.S. businessmen including Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joined Trump for a lunch with MbS.

MbS has focused on diversifying the Saudi economy in a major reform program dubbed Vision 2030 that includes "Giga-projects" such as NEOM, a futuristic city the size of Belgium. Oil generated 62% of Saudi government revenue last year.

The kingdom has scaled back some of its ambitions as rising costs and falling oil prices weigh. 

Saudi Arabia and the U.S. have maintained strong ties for decades based on an ironclad arrangement in which the kingdom delivers oil and the superpower provides security in exchange.

Trump left Israel off his schedule, although he wants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a new ceasefire deal in the 19-month-old Gaza war. 

Israel's military operations against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and its assassinations of the two Iran-allied groups' leaders, have at the same time given Trump more leverage by weakening Tehran and its regional allies.

U.S. and Iranian negotiators met in Oman at the weekend to discuss a potential deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program. Trump has threatened military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.

Trump told the investment forum he wants to offer Iran a new and better path toward a more helpful future. If no new nuclear deal is reached, he said, Tehran will face maximum pressure.

Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said last week he expected progress imminently on expanding accords brokered by Trump in his 2017-21 first term under which Arab states including the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco recognised Israel.

Trump said it was his "fervent hope" that Saudi Arabia would soon sign its own normalization agreement with Israel, adding, "But you'll do it in your own time."

Still, Netanyahu's opposition to a permanent stop to the war in Gaza or to the creation of a Palestinian state makes progress on similar talks with the Saudis unlikely, sources told Reuters. 

(Reporting by Gram Slattery, Pesha Magid, Yousef Saba, Federico Maccioni and Nafisa Eltahir in Riyadh and Maha El Dahan in Dubai; writing by Michael Georgy and Andy Sullivan; editing by Timothy Heritage, Mark Heinrich and Alistair Bell)