00:00U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he will move to normalize relations with Syria's new government and lift sanctions.
00:09He said the effort at rapprochement came at the urging of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi de facto ruler, who he was meeting in Riyadh.
00:18Oh, what I do for the Crown Prince. The sanctions were brutal and crippling and served as an important, really an important function, nevertheless, at the time.
00:32But now it's their time to shine. It's their time to shine. We're taking them all off and they're going to have, I think they're going to have haste in the people and the spirit and everything else that I'm hearing about.
00:43But if I say good luck, Syria, show us something very special, like they've done, frankly, in Saudi Arabia, OK, they're going to show us something special.
00:53The comments marked a striking change in tone from Trump, who had until now been deeply skeptical of Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara.
01:01Trump was set to meet al-Shara in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, which would be the first Syrian leader to meet an American president since the late Hafez Assad met Bill Clinton in Geneva in 2000.
