U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France on Tuesday that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa “did a good job” in Syria. “They brought the country back together,” Trump said as he was commenting on the U.S.-Iran deal, Israel’s attacks in Lebanon and how Syria could handle Hezbollah instead of Israel.
Since he took office, Trump has repeatedly boasted about good relations with Erdoğan. He is expected to meet Erdoğan at the upcoming NATO summit in Ankara.
Türkiye is a major supporter of the Ahmed al-Sharaa administration, which took power in its southern neighbor after the ouster of the Baathist regime. Al-Sharaa has been invited to White House according to unconfirmed reports while he was also invited to the G7 summit.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has been invited to White House, but the visit will not happen at this time, a Syrian official told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Thursday, when asked about the possible reported visit this weekend. Sharaa has also been invited to the G7 summit in France and the NATO summit in Ankara, said the official. It is not clear whether he will attend the G7, but a possible meeting with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara is being considered, the official added. Sharaa visited the White House last November in the first by a Syrian head of state since the country’s independence in 1946. He addressed the UN General Assembly in New York in September, marking his first major appearance on the world stage since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. Trump also met Sharaa in Riyadh in May 2025, shortly before Washington lifted sweeping sanctions on Syria.
