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Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting with the President of the Syrian Arab Republic, Jul. 8, 2026

July 8, 2026 · The White House · 0:14:47

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump met the President of the Syrian Arab Republic on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey on July 8, 2026. “We are working together. We were right from the beginning,” Trump said, crediting the Syrian president with unifying the country “in a very short period of time… about a year and a half,” and noting that the United States had “released sanctions from the country, which really I think was a big boost.” Syria, he said, had “become a very stable — I mean it’s amazing in a short period of time it’s really been stabilized.”

The Syrian president credited “the historic decision that President Trump has taken by lifting the sanctions of Syria,” together with the help of Turkey and other countries in the region, adding: “The entire Syrian people thanks President Trump.” Asked by a reporter whether he would remove Syria from the state sponsors of terrorism list, Trump answered: “I think I will. Yeah. I think I will.”

Why it matters

The meeting is the dated summit-level marker of the administration’s Syria opening: sanctions already lifted, as both leaders stated, and a further step — removal from the terrorism-sponsors list — committed to on camera by the President. This chronicle files it on the Foreign Policy & Defense hub as the two leaders stated it.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard candidate: the President’s on-record statement that he expects to remove Syria from the state sponsors of terrorism list — a dated commitment with a checkable outcome. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; the entry itself stays review-gated.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting with the President of the Syrian Arab Republic,” Ankara, Turkey, July 8, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All characterizations as stated by the two leaders at the meeting.