President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement yesterday that US sanctions will be lifted on Syria.
Trump says the move is designed to ‘give them (Syria) a chance at greatness.’
To sign the Abraham Accords in order to normalise relations with Israel is one of the five conditions Trump wants the new Syria’s transitional president Sharaa to meet.
In August 2020, during Trump’s first presidential term, he announced the Abraham Accords from the Oval Office in the White House.
The Abraham Accords
The accords, which Trump helped broker, are designed to normalise relations between other countries and Israel, to gain peace in the Middle East.
The declaration reads that ‘the best way to address challenges is through cooperation and dialogue and that developing friendly relations among States advances the interests of lasting peace in the Middle East and around the world’.
Countries that sign on with the Abraham Accords
Initially it was signed by Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, with Sudan and Morocco agreeing to join later on.
It was a big step forward for relations between Israel and Arab countries, but Israel’s war in Gaza in the wake of Hamas’s deadly 7 October attacks has halted progress in getting other nations to sign on as well.
The other four instructions Syria must abide with are: To deport all foreign terrorists n their country; specifically, Trump singled out ‘Palestinian terrorists’ to be deported; to assist the United States in stopping the resurgence of the so-called Islamic State group; and to assume the responsibility for detention centres relating to the group in northeast Syria.
