President Trump on Wednesday told Gulf leaders he urgently wants “to make a deal” with Iran to wind down its nuclear program but said Tehran must end its support of proxy groups throughout the region as part of any potential agreement.
Iran “must stop sponsoring terror, halt its bloody proxy wars and permanently and verifiably cease pursuit of nuclear weapons,” Trump said in remarks at a meeting of leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council hosted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Saudi capital. “They cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
The U.S. and Iran have engaged in four rounds of talks since early last month focused on Iran’s nuclear program. Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that he believes brokering a deal is possible but that the window is closing.
The president’s strongly worded push on Iran to cease support of Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen come as its proxy network has faced significant setbacks in the 19 months since Hamas-led militants launched the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and 251 were taken as hostages back into Gaza. Some of those hostages have been killed or have been released as part of deals, but there are still some 58 hostages being held by Hamas.
In Iran, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called Mr. Trump’s remarks “deceitful” but did not directly address his call on Iran to cease support of proxy groups.
Later, Mr. Trump, in an exchange with reporters aboard Air Force One, urged Iran “to make the right decision” about its nuclear program “because something’s going to happen one way or the other.”
“So we’ll either do it friendly or we’ll do it very unfriendly,” Mr. Trump warned. “And that won’t be pleasant.”
Mr. Trump said that he believed the moment was ripe “for a future free from the grip of Hezbollah terrorists.” Hezbollah is severely weakened after its war last year with Israel in which much of its top leadership was killed, and after losing a key ally with the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, a conduit for Iran to send arms.
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright told CBS News’ Weijia Jiang that he anticipates a deal with Iran by the end of the year, calling it a “very active dialogue in all of my travels in the Middle East.”
“I think sometime later this year, and hopefully on the sooner, and hopefully much sooner than late this year, we’ll see large breakthroughs in Iran,” Wright said. “Look, this is a win, win deal. Iran agrees to completely give up their nuclear program. They can have trade, they can have engagement with the rest of the world. They can bring down rampant inflation. They can bring investment, make their society better, and the rest of the region can thrive, if it’s not constantly under bombardment by Iranian proxies or the threat of a nuclear armed Iran This is by far the biggest security issue in the Middle East.”
Lifting sanctions on Syria
Mr. Trump’s comments on Iran came after he met Wednesday with Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a face-to-face engagement with the onetime insurgent leader who spent years imprisoned by U.S. forces after being captured in Iraq.
In a readout on the two leaders’ meeting in Saudi Arabia, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr. Trump had told the Syrian leader that “he has a tremendous opportunity to do something historic in his country,” and urged him to join Saudi Arabia in signing onto the U.S.-backed Abraham Accords, to normalize ties with Israel.
Mr. Trump agreed to meet al-Sharaa at the end of his stay in Saudi Arabia. The president then headed to Qatar, where he is being honored with a state visit. His Mideast tour also will take him to the United Arab Emirates later this week.
Al-Sharaa was named 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, stormed Damascus and ended the 54-year rule of the Assad family.
Mr. Trump said he decided to meet with al-Sharaa after being encouraged to do so by Prince Mohammed and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The president also pledged to lift yearslong sanctions on Syria.
Mr. Trump told reporters that the meeting with al-Sharaa went “great” and described him as a “young, attractive guy” with a “very strong past.”
“He’s got a real shot at holding it together,” Mr. Trump said.
Prince Mohammed joined Trump and al-Sharaa for the meeting, which lasted 33 minutes. Erdogan also took part in the talks via video conference.
The prince said Mr. Trump’s decision to engage with al-Sharaa and lift the sanctions will “alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people” and spur a “new chapter” for the nation.
Formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa joined the ranks of al-Qaida insurgents battling U.S. forces in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion. He still faces a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges in Iraq. The U.S. once offered $10 million for information about his whereabouts because of his links to al-Qaida.
Al-Sharaa returned to his home country of Syria after the conflict began in 2011 and led al-Qaida’s branch called the Nusra Front. He changed the name of his group to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and cut links with al-Qaida.
The U.S. sanctions go back to the rule of Assad, who was ousted in December, and were intended to inflict major pain on the Syrian economy.
Both the Biden and Trump administrations left the sanctions in place after Assad’s fall as they sought to take the measure of al-Sharaa.
State visit to Qatar
After meeting with members of the GCC — which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — Mr. Trump flew to Qatar, the second stop in his Mideast tour.
Like the Saudis did a day earlier, Qatar rolled out the red carpet for Trump. Trump was greeted at the airport by Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim Al Thani, and Air Force One was escorted by Qatari F-15 jets as it neared the capital city of Doha.
As he sat down for talks with the emir at the Royal Court told the Qatari leader, he Mr Trump said he was impressed with the “perfecto” marble as well as the camels that took part in his grand arrival ceremony.
Al Thani, for his part, said he had high hopes for Mr. Trump’s efforts at ending the grinding war in Gaza.
“I know that you are a man of peace,” he said. “I know that you want to bring peace to this region.”
Qatar, like the other Gulf Arab states, is an autocratic nation where political parties are banned and speech is tightly controlled. It is overseen by its ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Sheikh Tamim took power in June 2013 when his father stepped down.
Qatar has also been linked to several high-profile pay-to-play-style scandals around the globe.
Two European Union lawmakers were accused of taking money from Doha in a scandal dubbed “Qatar-gate.” U.S. prosecutors in 2020 accused Qatar of bribing FIFA executive committee members to secure the tournament in the country in 2022.
In 2024, RTX Corp., the defense contractor formerly known as Raytheon, agreed to pay more than $950 million to resolve allegations that it defrauded the U.S. government and paid bribes to secure business with Qatar. Doha always has denied any wrongdoing.
Qatar also has served as a key mediator, particularly with the militant terrorist group Hamas as the international community pursues a ceasefire for in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Qatar also served as host of the negotiations between the United States and the Taliban that led to America’s 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Qatar is home to Al-Udeid Air Base, a sprawling facility that hosts the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command.
The oil-and-gas rich country is also in the center of a controversy over its offer to give Mr. Trump a luxury $400 million Boeing 747-8 to be used as Air Force One. The president has said the plane is “a gift from the Nation to the United States Air Force/Department of Defense” and not him.
The Qatari government has said a final decision hasn’t been made. But Trump has defended the idea even as critics argue it would amount to a president accepting an astonishingly valuable gift from a foreign government.
Mr. Trump said after he leaves office the plane would reside at his library and not be used.