Donald Trump is speaking in Saudi Arabia after meeting Syria’s President Ahmed al Sharaa – a man once imprisoned by the US. Watch and follow the latest on Trump’s Middle East tour below.
Wednesday 14 May 2025 09:17, UK
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Donald Trump is now speaking in Saudi Arabia and has hit out at Joe Biden for “turning his back on the Gulf allies”.
“Those days are over,” he tells those in attendance.
“Everybody at the table knows where my loyalties lie.”
He insists his loyalties will “never waver” and vows to “confront the aggression that threatens us all”.
Turning to Iran, Trump says he “wants to make a deal” if it’s possible.
“But for that to happen, it must stop sponsoring terror, halt its bloody proxy wars and permanently and verifiably cease its pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
Donald Trump has posed for a group photograph with Gulf leaders before flying off to Qatar.
Standing next to him in the photo is Saudi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and officials from the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and the general secretary of the Gulf Cooperation Council Leaders’ (GCC).
As we’ve been setting out, Donald Trump will leave Saudi Arabia this morning for Qatar, on the second day of his three-day Middle East tour.
He’s already met with Syria’s new president briefly today.
Before he departs, he is taking part in a “family photo” with leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.
You can watch the live footage we have from Riyadh at the top of the page, with Trump attending talks between Gulf nations and posing for the photo now, before leaving for Qatar at around 10am UK time.
Syrians celebrated in the streets last night after Donald Trump said he would ease US sanctions on the country and move to normalise relations with its new government.
Trump said he wanted to give the country “a chance at peace” and added: “There is a new government that will hopefully succeed. I say good luck, Syria. Show us something special.”
Here are just a few of the images emerging from Damascus…
Donald Trump is now meeting Syrian President Ahmad al Sharaa, according to the White House.
A Trump official has confirmed that the meeting has started and is ongoing.
It should be noted that this is the first meeting between the nations’ leaders in 25 years.
It comes after Trump announced the US would lift long-standing sanctions on Syria, in a move that took many by surprise.
Canadians “weren’t impressed” by the decision of the UK government to offer Donald Trump a second state visit to the UK, the country’s prime minister has told Sky News.
In an interview with presenter Samantha Washington, Mark Carney said that the invitation “cut across clear messages” that the Canadian government was trying to send to the White House in response to their threats against Canada’s sovereignty.
“I think, to be frank, they [Canadians] weren’t impressed by that gesture… given the circumstance. It was at a time when we were being quite clear about the issues around sovereignty.”
You can watch what Carney had to say here…
Some more details now from the White House on Donald Trump’s expected meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa, which is due to happen in the next few minutes.
The two leaders are due to speak before the Gulf Cooperation Council Leaders’ (GCC) summit in Riyadh, which is scheduled to start at 8am UK time.
“The president will do a pull aside with Syrian President Ahmad al Sharaa ahead of the GCC Summit this morning,” the White House said in a statement.
A pull aside is an informal conversation or meeting between leaders that is usually brief.
It’s not yet confirmed where this brief conversation will be – but the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh seems likely, as it is hosting the GCC meeting.
As we reported earlier, the two leaders will talk after it was announced the US would lift long-standing sanctions on Syria (see post at 6.48am).
Donald Trump received a lavish welcome yesterday in Riyadh and the pomp and grandeur is likely to continue when he lands in Qatar.
Here is the US leader’s schedule for the day (all below timings are UK):
It’s also expected we’ll see another signing ceremony in Qatar today but the times for this, and the details of any US-Qatar agreement, are unconfirmed.
As Donald Trump receives a royal welcome in Saudi Arabia, Sky’s US correspondents Mark Stone and James Matthews discuss the $600bn (£451bn) deal signed between the two nations, and the love-in between the countries’ leaders.
Plus, Mark, who’s in the Middle East with Trump, describes the reaction in the room when Trump announced he was lifting sanctions on Syria.
If you’ve got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.
In a few hours, Donald Trump will meet with Syrian President Ahmad al Sharaa in a face-to-face meeting.
This comes after he announced the US would lift long-standing sanctions on Syria that would have been in place since 2011.
Why is this a surprise?
The Syrian leader is a one-time insurgent leader who spent years imprisoned by US forces after being captured in Iraq.
He was named president of Syria in January, a month after an offensive by insurgent groups led by his Hayat Tahrir al Sham, or HTS, stormed Damascus and ended the 54-year rule of the Assad family.
Formerly known as Abu Mohammed al Jolani, al Sharaa joined al Qaeda insurgents battling US forces in Iraq and still faces a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges in that country.
The US once offered $10m for information about his whereabouts because of his links to al Qaeda.
The new Syrian president came back to his home country of Syria after the conflict began in 2011 and led al Qaeda’s branch that used to be known as the Nusra Front.
He later changed the name of his group to Hayat Tahrir al Sham and cut links with al Qaeda.
Trump said he agreed to meet with al Sharaa after being encouraged to do so by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
You can read more about al Sharaa below, in our profile from December when his forces overthrew Assad:
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