Syria's President meets Trump at the White House
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ahmed al-Sharaa - once designated a high-value terrorist target by the US - has, as the new president of Syria, met Donald Trump at the White House. But concerns run deep inside Syria over the level of sectarian violence.
Also in the programme: President Trump threatens to sue the BBC for $1bn, but does he have a case? And at least nine people are killed in an explosion in the Indian capital, Delhi, outside the seventeenth century Red Fort.
(IMAGE: President Donald Trump shakes hands with Syria's President Ahmad al-Sharaa at the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025 / CREDIT: Syrian Presidency press office via AP)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.9 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour. |
| 0:11.9 | It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service studios in central London. |
| 0:16.1 | I'm Tim Franks. |
| 0:17.6 | We're beginning with an invitation to picture a scene that might seem all too |
| 0:23.7 | unremarkable, a head of state wearing suit and tie, going to the White House to shake hands |
| 0:29.8 | with the president. But this has been an utterly remarkable moment, head-scratchingly so. |
| 0:36.7 | The head of state in question is a man whom the |
| 0:39.7 | US once designated as a global terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head. He's now known |
| 0:46.1 | as Ahmed al-Shara. Back then, his non-deghir was Abu Mohammed al-Gilani, the leader of an Al-Qaeda |
| 0:53.7 | affiliated group of jihadists. |
| 0:56.1 | Last December, the forces he led, which he had since distance from Al-Qaeda, but nonetheless |
| 1:01.4 | remained militant Islamists, helped overthrow the decades-long dictatorship of the Assad family |
| 1:07.6 | and end the civil war, which had racked Syria for 13 years. |
| 1:12.5 | Donald Trump, newly back in office, quickly decided that President Al-Sharah was a man worth |
| 1:17.4 | doing business with, especially now that Iran's influence in Syria had been beaten back by |
| 1:22.7 | Assad's fall. Well, in the last few minutes, President Trump has been asked in the Oval Office by |
| 1:29.9 | journalists about the meeting, and here's some of what he had to say. |
| 1:34.3 | He comes from a very tough place, and he's a tough guy. I liked him. I get along with him |
| 1:40.2 | the president, the new president in Syria, and we'll do everything we can to make |
| 1:44.9 | Syria successful because that's part of the Middle East. |
| 1:47.7 | A tough guy, says President Trump, but one of the big questions since Al-Sharas has sent |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.