“President Donald Trump kicked off his trip to the Gulf on Tuesday with a surprise announcement that the United States will lift long-standing sanctions on Syria, and a $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the U.S. The U.S. agreed to sell Saudi Arabia an arms package worth nearly $142 billion, according to the White House which called it the largest ‘defense cooperation agreement’ Washington has ever done.” Reuters

‍“Even before the trip began, Israel was on edge over U.S. talks with its arch-enemy Iran and over Trump's decision to stop bombing the Houthis in Yemen, regardless of the Iranian-backed group's determination to keep up its own missile strikes against Israel…

“Israeli officials were then forced to stand by and watch as the United States negotiated to reach a deal with the Palestinian militant group Hamas to bring home Edan Alexander, the last surviving American hostage in Gaza. Since then, they have had to listen as Trump declared an end to sanctions on Syria and called for a normalization of relations with the new government in Damascus.” Reuters‍

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‍Both sides generally support relaxing sanctions on Syria:

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‍“Let’s be honest about what sanctions achieved. They didn’t force [Bashar al-] Assad from power. They didn’t curb Russian or Iranian interference. And they didn’t stop Syria’s descent into economic ruin, warlordism, and mass migration… Assad’s government collapsed in December, but that collapse didn’t end the war. It created a vacuum. The central state collapsed. Armed factions scrambled for power…

“Into that chaos stepped al-Sharaa—then a powerful commander in Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda affiliate. Al-Sharaa forged an interim government backed by a coalition of former rebel forces. In March, that government adopted a five-year roadmap toward new elections and national unification. It’s not a Western-style democracy. It’s not even clear it will last. But it is the most serious attempt since Syria’s civil war began in 2011 to knit Syria back together…

“The choice isn’t between perfect partners and permanent sanctions. It’s between shaping what emerges, or allowing others—Russia, Iran, or fragmented militias—to define Syria’s future for us… Trump made the right decision.”

‍Brian O’Neill, The Contrarian

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‍“There is still plenty of sectarian violence in the post-Assad Syria, but Sharaa’s interim government has made more than cosmetic efforts to ingratiate itself with Syria’s minorities — including its persecuted Christians and even the Alawite sect, from which the Assad clan hailed. His Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants and their Turkish sponsors have been reliably hostile toward the Iranian assets that took root in Syria under Assad’s patronage…

“And there have been confidence-building measures between the U.S. and the Syrian regime, including in Damascus’s acquiescence to a U.S. demand that the regime arrest two senior members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad…

“If Damascus is willing to execute America’s security priorities in the region in exchange for commercial investment and cultural ties to the West, Washington should welcome and guide that transition. Insofar as geopolitics is a zero-sum game, taking Syria off the board for Russia and Iran and adding it to the collection of Western assets would be a triumph. At the very least, it’s worth a shot. Trump deserves credit for taking it.”

‍Noah Rothman, National Review‍

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‍Other opinions below.