Trump's Syria shift – A pivotal moment for Damascus and the Middle East?

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler

Podmasters

News, Society & Culture, Politics

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Trump’s shock announcement that he would be lifting economic sanctions on Syria has sparked celebrations in the streets of Damascus. What are the consequences for the recovery of a nation rebuilding its state and infrastructure after more than a decade of civil war? And following the announcement in Riyadh after a meeting between Trump and Syria’s new President Ahmed al-Sharaa, what does it mean for Syria’s rebalancing of relations in the Middle East and across the globe? Emma Beals discusses a dramatic week and its potential ramifications with Syrian economist Karam Shaar, and Dareen Khalifa, senior adviser at the International Crisis Group. • This episode of This Is Not A Drill is supported by Incogni, the service that keeps your private information safe, protects you from identity theft and keeps your data from being sold. There’s a special offer for This Is Not A Drill listeners – go to https://incogni.com/notadrill to get an exclusive 60% off your annual plan. • Support us on Patreon to keep This Is Not A Drill producing thought-provoking podcasts like this. Written and presented by Emma Beals. Produced by Robin Leeburn. Original theme music by Paul Hartnoll – https://www.orbitalofficial.com. Executive Producer Martin Bojtos. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. This Is Not A Drill is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:51.6	President Trump's shock announcement about lifting sanctions on Syria and his subsequent meeting
0:56.7	with Syrian President Al-Shara in Riyadh prompted celebrations in Syria's streets and squares
1:02.6	once again. It's been five months since they were last celebrating after the rapid and dramatic fall
1:08.4	of their dictator Bashar al-Assad after 14 long years of war and suffering.
1:13.6	The country has dropped from the headlines, but violence is not far from the surface and the economy
1:18.1	is in ruins. The hard work of building a country from the mess left by the decades-long reign of
1:23.6	terror of the House of Assad is difficult and complex.
1:32.5	So what is happening at Syria and what chance does it have of creating the state that Syrians dreamed of when they first took to the streets in protest all those years ago?
1:37.4	I'm Emma Beals and this is not a drill. Anyone who'd told you
1:45.0	Anyone who'd told you six months ago that Shara would be meeting Trump, MBS and Erdogan in Saudi
2:07.1	after toppling Assad would have been classified as genuinely unhinged.
2:12.8	But here we are.
	...

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