Trump was welcomed in Riyadh with an ostentatious ceremony, which included a lavender carpet — a Saudi national symbol since 2021 — and an equestrian guard of honour led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In his opening speech to an investment forum, the president called Saudi Arabia the United States' “strongest partner” and expressed his “fervent desire” for the Kingdom to join the Abraham Accords, although he acknowledged that this would depend on progress towards a Palestinian state and an end to the conflict in Gaza.

A historic shift towards Syria

Business alliances

Trump was accompanied by a delegation of senior US executives, reflecting his interest in strengthening economic ties. Among those present were Elon Musk — who, despite announcing that he would reduce his involvement in politics, continues to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI), Larry Fink (CEO of BlackRock), Stephen Schwarzman (CEO of Blackstone) and Jensen Huang (CEO of Nvidia).

Regional challenges

Despite the optimistic tone, Trump did not ignore the tensions that persist in the region. He reiterated his condemnation of the Islamic Republic of Iran and offered an ‘olive branch’ to negotiate an end to its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. However, he warned that his offer has a limited time frame. ‘The situation is accelerating. They have to act now,’ he stressed.

The president had little to say about the conflict between Israel and Hamas, although he expressed his desire for ‘the people of Gaza to have a better future,’ blaming Hamas for ‘holding back peace’ with its violent actions since 7 October 2023.

WASHINGTON — The conservative activist named by President Donald Trump as the head of the Justice Department's "Weaponization Working Group" said Tuesday he planned to "name" and "shame" individuals the department determines it is unable to charge with crimes, in what would amount to a major departure from longstanding Justice Department protocols.

Ed Martin described himself at a press conference as the "captain" of the group that is investigating prosecutors who launched past investigations into Trump and his allies.

“There are some really bad actors, some people that did some really bad things to the American people. And if they can be charged, we’ll charge them. But if they can’t be charged, we will name them," Martin said. "And we will name them, and in a culture that respects shame, they should be people that are ashamed. And that’s a fact. That’s the way things work. And so that’s, that’s how I believe the job operates.”

During Trump's first tenure, the justification given for Trump's firing of former FBI Director James Comey was that Comey had given a press conference in which he released "derogatory information" about then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.

"Derogatory information sometimes is disclosed in the course of criminal investigations and prosecutions, but we never release it gratuitously," then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wrote in a memo, adding that he believed Comey had given a "textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do."

Martin's remarks came on his last full day as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia on Tuesday. Trump announced last week that he was naming Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as interim U.S. attorney following Martin's 120-day tenure, instead making Martin the pardon attorney, associate deputy attorney general, and director of the "Weaponization Working Group" that Attorney General Pam Bondi established at the Justice Department in response to one of Trump's executive orders.

That group is due to examine work including that of former Special Counsel Jack Smith; any federal cooperation with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who prosecuted Trump's hush money case, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a civil case against the Trump Organization; the Justice Department's handling of cases related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack; and criminal prosecutions of anti-abortion activists, among other issues.

“When it comes to the problem of weaponization, the first part of it must be transparency," Martin said. "We have to show our fellow Americans what went on, because when you hide it and then you prosecute, you look like your target. That’s what the Biden administration, they didn’t tell you what they were doing they just targeted people.” 

Justice Department protocols state that officials generally shouldn't confirm the existence of or otherwise comment on ongoing investigations. Martin said it was important to get “the truth” out when asked whether his past comments — and the plans he laid out on Tuesday — would run afoul of those protocols

"I will say that the prosecutor’s role, and at this moment in our history, is to make clear what the truth is and to get that out,” Martin said. “It can’t be that the system is stifling the truth from coming out because of some procedure."

Martin said he would have a “more public-facing” role as director of the Weaponization Working Group. 

“When I was asked to switch over here, I was told, you know, this job, you need to be out more and talk about what’s going on. So I think we’ll be a little bit more outward facing in terms of talking about what’s happening,” Martin said. 

Martin had no prosecutorial experience when Trump named him to the U.S. attorney position on Inauguration Day, the same day the president mass-pardoned Jan. 6 defendants. Soon, some prosecutors who worked on Capitol attack cases were fired, Martin opened a probe into the office's handling of an obstruction charge used against some of the rioters, and Martin demoted others who played a key role in the prosecutions.

Ryan J. Reilly

Ryan J. Reilly is a justice reporter for NBC News.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump met with interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, the first encounter between the two nations’ leaders in 25 years and one that could mark a turning point for Syria as it struggles to emerge from decades of international isolation.

The meeting, on the sidelines of Trump’s get-together with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, marks a major turn of events for a Syria still adjusting to life after the over 50-year, iron-gripped rule of the Assad family.

Trump had announced the day before as he kicked off his three-nation Middle East tour in Riyadh that he would also move to lift U.S. sanctions imposed on Syria under the deposed autocrat Bashar Assad.

People across Syria cheered in the streets and set off fireworks on Tuesday night to celebrate, hopeful their nation — locked out of credit cards and global finance — might rejoin the world’s economy when they need investments the most.

Wednesday’s meeting was also remarkable given al-Sharaa, under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, had ties to al-Qaida and joined insurgents battling U.S. forces in Iraq before entering the Syrian war. He was even imprisoned by U.S. troops there for several years.

And the meeting came even after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier asked Trump not to lift sanctions on Syria, again underscoring a growing discontent between the White House and the Israeli government as its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip rages on.

I am “ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria to give them a fresh start,” Trump told the Gulf Cooperation Council after his meeting with al-Sharaa. “It gives them a chance for greatness. The sanctions were really crippling, very powerful.”

A historic closed-door meeting

Trump said on Tuesday that he would meet al-Sharaa, who had flown in to the Saudi capital for the face-to-face.

Even before its ruinous civil war that began in 2011, Syria struggled under a tightly controlled socialist economy and under sanctions by the U.S. as a state-sponsor of terror since 1979.

The Trump-al-Sharaa meeting took place behind closed doors and reporters were not permitted to witness the engagement. The White House later said it ran for just over 30 minutes, making al-Sharaa the first Syrian leader to meet an American president since Hafez Assad met Bill Clinton in Geneva in 2000.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined the meeting between Trump, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and al-Sharaa via a phone call. Turkey was a main backer to al-Sharaa and his rebel faction.

“I felt very strongly that this would give them a chance,” Trump said of Syria. “It’s not going to be easy anyway, so gives them a good strong chance. And, it was my honor to do so.”

He added: “We made a speech last night and, that was the thing that got the biggest applause from the room.”

Trump cited the intervention of Saudi Prince Mohammed as key to his decision.

“We commend the decision made yesterday by President Trump to lift the sanctions on the brotherly Syrian Arab Republic, which will alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people,” he said in a speech to the GCC.

What happened in the meeting?

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump urged al-Sharaa to diplomatically recognize Israel, “tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria” and help the U.S. stop any resurgence of the Islamic State group.

Trump also asked for the Syrian government to “assume responsibility” for over a dozen detention centers holding some 9,000 suspected members of the Islamic State group, Leavitt added. The prisons are run by the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led forces that spearheaded the military campaign against the extremists and controlled the last sliver of land they once held in March 2019.

As part of a deal reached in March between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led forces, all border crossings with Iraq and Turkey, airports and oil fields in the northeast would be brought under the central government’s control by the end of the year.

Trump’s desire for Syria to take over the prisons also signal the potential of a full American military withdrawal from Syria.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry said Trump and al-Sharaa discussed the Syrian-U.S. partnership in fighting terror and armed groups such as IS standing in the way of stability.

Al-Sharaa’s militant past sparks Israeli concern

Al-Sharaa was named interim president of Syria in January, a month after a stunning offensive by insurgent groups led by al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, that stormed Damascus, ending the 54-year rule of the Assad family.

Many Gulf Arab leaders have rallied behind the new government in Damascus and want Trump to follow, believing it is a bulwark against Iran’s return to influence in Syria, where it had helped prop up Assad’s government during a decadelong civil war.

But longtime U.S. ally Israel has been deeply skeptical of al-Sharaa’s extremist past and cautioned against swift recognition of the new government. The request came during Netanyahu’s visit to Washington last month, according to an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the subject.

Israel was concerned a cross-border attack similar to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assault, could come from Syria. Israel also fears al-Sharaa and his Islamist past could pose a threat on its northern border.

Trump’s move draws cheers from Syrians

Syrians cheered the announcement by Trump that the U.S. will move to lift sanctions on the beleaguered Middle Eastern nation.

The state-run SANA news agency published video and photographs of Syrians cheering in Umayyad Square, the largest in the country’s capital, Damascus. Others honked their car horns or waved the new Syrian flag in celebration.

People whistled and cheered as fireworks lit the night sky.

A statement from Syria’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday night called the announcement “a pivotal turning point for the Syrian people as we seek to emerge from a long and painful chapter of war.”

“The removal of these sanctions offers a vital opportunity for Syria to pursue stability, self-sufficiency and meaningful national reconstruction, led by and for the Syrian people,” the statement added.

___

Madhani reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press photographer Alex Brandon and writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey; Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

Wagner - famously used to support Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine - allegedly taught assault tactics and use of kamikaze drones during the summer months.

The claims came from Ukraine’s national resistance centre after being passed intelligence by Russian and Belarusian sources.

A spokesman for the centre, established by the Ukrainian army’s special operations forces, said: “Instructors of the Russian internationally-recognised criminal organisation Wagner PMC trained militants of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas to attack Israel.”

During the Summer, Wagner fighters billeted in Belarus are understood to have left for Africa. Once there, they were “involved in training and transferring combat experience to Hamas militants,” according to the Ukrainians.

“Key training areas for Hamas militants were assault training and the use of small drones to drop explosive materials,” the spokesman for Ukraine’s national resistance centre said. “Only the Russians, among allies of Hamas, have experience in using drones with mechanisms for dropping explosives on enemy equipment.

“This is exactly what the Wagner mercenaries trained Hamas militants to do during exercises in Africa.”

The Ukrainians said information came from sources in the Belarusian resistance.

Russia’s aim was supposedly to create chaos and detract the West’s attention from the war in Ukraine, forcing its supply of weapons and resources to be redirected to Israel.

The claim that the Wagner Group has been actively involved in training Hamas was also made by Russian anti-Putin channel General SVR, which alleged it was approved by the Kremlin. “Representatives of the Wagner PMC [Private Military Company] and the Redut PMC took part in the preparation of Hamas militants for an attack on Israel, in coordination with the Russian leadership,” the channel said.

Wagner - set up with the close involvement of Russian GRU military intelligence - was headed by formerly close Putin associate Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a mysterious plane crash near Moscow on 23 August soon after returning from Africa.

There is speculation he was assassinated on Kremlin orders for leading an armed mutiny against Putin’s war commanders, or because he harboured political ambitions or knew too many secrets regarding the dictator.

Since his death the Wagner forces have been partly integrated into the Russian military, or disbanded. Separately, Kyiv has also accused Russia of supplying terrorist organisation Hamas with Nato weapons captured in the war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian military intelligence - headed by Lt-Gen Kyrylo Budanov - said: “The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine informs that the Russian GRU [military intelligence] has already transferred captured weapons made in the USA and EU countries to Hamas terrorists.

“The next step, according to the Russians’ plan, should be false accusations of the Ukrainian military of selling Western weapons to terrorists on a regular basis.”