What Trump and Sharaa stand to gain from lifting Syria sanctions

Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, branded Donald Trump's decision to lift U.S. sanctions on his country "historic and courageous", calling it a turning point for a nation shattered by war and isolation.

Speaking in a televised address, Sharaa said the US president's move "alleviates the suffering of the people, contributes to their rebirth and lays the foundations for stability in the region".

Trump's offer to ease sanctions -- mostly imposed during the repressive rule of ousted president Bashar al-Assad -- comes as a major boost to the war-ravaged country still coming to grips with regime change.

What benefits will Trump and Sharaa reap from this unprecedented step?

- For Trump -

According to the White House, during their brief meeting in Riyadh, Trump told Sharaa to "do a great job for the Syrian people", and presented a list of demands for the new leadership.

The list includes normalizing ties with Israel, expelling foreign fighters, deporting "Palestinian terrorists", and helping prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State (IS) group, among other goals.

While few expect Sharaa to deliver on all of them, Trump hopes the move will satisfy Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and offer broader strategic returns.

"It's a favor that costs him nothing to give, and he wins applause and gratitude in return, plus of course the benefits of giving Syria a shot at stability and recovery," said Aron Lund, fellow at the Century International research center.

The presence of a functioning Syrian government, Lund added, would "make it easier for Trump to deliver on his ambition to pull US troops out of Syria".

The United States has had a military presence in Syria throughout its civil war, largely backing Kurdish-led forces against IS.

Assad's government, by contrast, was supported by Russia, Iran and its proxies.

Lifting sanctions, Lund said, "opens up the possibility of effective long-term cooperation against the Islamic State and Iran".

- For Sharaa -

Syria's civil war, sparked in 2011, killed more than half a million people, displaced millions and devastated the country.

Washington imposed sweeping financial sanctions during the conflict and warned it would punish anyone involved in reconstruction while Assad remained in power.

While other countries also imposed sanctions, the US measures were easily the most far-reaching.

Analysts say Trump's move could unlock investment, help the banking sector recover and ease humanitarian work.

It is "a very important political signal", said Jihad Yazigi, editor of economic publication The Syria Report.

Damascus hopes to use this momentum to push reconstruction efforts, which the United Nations estimates could cost more than $400 billion.

In his speech, Sharaa pledged Syria would no longer be "an arena for power struggles or a platform for foreign ambitions", and vowed to improve "the investment scene and developing economic legislation".

- Main challenges ahead -

The road to Syria's recovery will be steep.

Lund said Sharaa must "continue to work on Trump's list of demands".

"Some of them are easy -- he's probably eager to get US support for anti-Islamic State operations -- but some are hard, maybe impossible," he said.

Much depends on how flexible Washington is willing to be on the more contentious points.

Normalizing ties with Israel may be particularly thorny, given Syria's bloodier history with its southwestern neighbor compared with Arab states that have established relations.

Israel is still attacking Syria and has occupied most of the Golan Heights, where Sharaa's family is from, since 1967.

Another hurdle will be foreign fighters, some of whom serve in Sharaa's own forces, while others belong to radical groups harder to control.

For Washington, lifting sanctions will also require a major effort, said Delaney Simon, senior analyst at International Crisis Group.

"It will require a massive bureaucratic and possibly political lift in Washington, and will require the mobilization of different arms of the US government including the Treasury, State and Commerce departments and Congress," she said.