US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa backed normalisation with Israel in the future, after the two leaders met after Washington lifted sanctions on Syria.
"I told him (Sharaa), I hope you're going to join (the Abraham Accords) once you're straightened out and he said yes. But they have a lot of work to do," Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while heading to Doha from Riyadh.
Earlier, Trump had asked Syria's new leader to normalise relations with Israel after he offered a major boost to the war-ravaged country by announcing the lifting of sanctions.
Trump, on a state visit to Riyadh, became the first US president in 25 years to meet a Syrian leader -- Ahmed al-Sharaa, an erstwhile Islamist guerrilla and onetime jihadist who had been on a US wanted list and led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December.
The interim Syrian president and Trump, wearing matching suits, shook hands as they met jointly with Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and, by video link, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the key supporter of the new government in Damascus.