A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump is in the Gulf state of Qatar on the third day of his trip to the Middle East.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
He received a standing ovation from a crowd in Saudi Arabia when he vowed to lift U.S. sanctions against Syria. And he had compliments for that country's new leader, which he shared with reporters on Air Force One.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How did you find the Syrian president?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Great. I think very good. Young, attractive guy. Tough guy.
INSKEEP: Syrians celebrated the lifting of sanctions on the streets of Damascus, although all of this is causing some confusion in Syria's neighbor Israel, which was Syria's enemy for decades. What does all this mean for a close U.S. ally?
MARTÍNEZ: Let's ask NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi. She joins us now from Tel Aviv. So Hadeel, President Trump says sanctions on Syria will be lifted. He also said that Syria's new leader is ready to normalize ties with Israel. Is that what he really wants?
HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: I mean, it really appears so. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has been saying he wants no trouble with Israel for months now, and yesterday he said in a speech that Syria will be a land of peace. You know, the Syrian government has been making these overtures ever since they took power in December. You know, two weeks after the fall of the Assad regime, I spoke to the Damascus governor, Maher Marwan, who said, on behalf of his leader, Syria wanted cordial relations with Israel. This is what he told me.
MAHER MARWAN: (Non-English language spoken).
AL-SHALCHI: Marwan said "we want peace, and we cannot be an opponent to Israel or an opponent to anyone else." He also told me that he wanted the United States to facilitate those relations. And then yesterday, on the heels of Trump's comments, Sharaa's spokesperson, Ali al-Rifai, spoke to Israeli media, and he backed this up. He said, we want peace in the region, and that includes Israel.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. Is that what we're hearing from Israel?
AL-SHALCHI: So there's no official comment yet, but we do know that Israel was kind of stunned at the news that Trump wants to lift sanctions. You know, Israeli media had reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Trump not to lift them. Israel's line all along has been that Sharaa and his people are terrorists, that Israel must defend itself from them. And they say that's why they need to expand, and they've been expanding past a long recognized buffer zone into Syria. Israel's also been continuing its bombing campaign in targets in and around Damascus. But, you know, at the end of the day, here in Israel, Syria, of course, is a consideration, but front of mind is the war in Gaza.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, Israel has been continuing airstrikes there in the past three days while President Trump is in the region. What's going on there?
AL-SHALCHI: Well, just in the past 24 hours, Gaza health officials said at least 150 Palestinians were killed - including dozens of children - in Israeli airstrikes in the north and the south of Gaza. You know, Israel has also blocked aid into Gaza for more than 10 weeks now. No food, medical supplies, shelter supplies have entered Gaza in that time. Israel says it wants to pressure Hamas to release more hostages that way. But aid groups say that Gaza is on the brink of famine, that nearly half a million Palestinians are in, quote, "catastrophic levels of hunger."
During this trip that Trump is on in the Gulf, there haven't been any public talks about a ceasefire. But this morning, he did tell reporters that he has concepts for Gaza, that he'd be happy to let the U.S. get involved, and he'd make Gaza, quote, "a freedom zone."
MARTÍNEZ: All right, that's NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi from Tel Aviv. Hadeel, thanks.
AL-SHALCHI: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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