When President Donald Trump announced the lifting of US sanctions on Syria during his trip to the Middle East this week, it marked a major policy shift that could reshape the region and triggered a scramble across the US government to implement the decision,

Saudi Arabia and Turkey's leaders played a key role in convincing Trump to lift sanctions on Syria and meet with al-Sharaa.

President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Syria Tuesday and dangled a similar enticement to Iran during a speech in Saudi Arabia, offering himself up as a historic peacemaker and outlining a transactional vision for future cooperation in the Middle East based on “commerce,