U.S. President Donald Trump met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh on Wednesday, a U.S. government representative confirmed.

The meeting took place in the Saudi capital before a scheduled meeting between Trump and leaders of several Gulf countries.

It is the first meeting between U.S. and Syrian presidents in around 25 years.

The meeting also came a day after Mr Trump said he would lift sanctions imposed on Damascus.

Mr Trump, who was in Saudi Arabia for the first leg of his three-nation Gulf tour, said lifting the sanctions was a chance for the war-torn country to shine.

The White House said on Tuesday that Mr Trump had agreed to say hello to the Syrian president.

The U.S. and other countries imposed sanctions in response to former President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown on protesters in 2011.

The violence in his regime was carried out against civilians during the ensuing civil war.

Mr Al-Assad was overthrown in early December by an Islamist rebel alliance led by al-Sharaa, who was later appointed interim president.

Once an insurgent leader, Mr al-Sharaa has since renounced both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

However, doubts remain as to whether he has fully abandoned extremist ideology, and he is still listed on U.S. and EU terrorist lists.

The last meeting between U.S. and Syrian leaders was in 2000 between then-Presidents Bill Clinton and Hafez al-Assad (Bashar’s father).

(dpa/NAN)