Trump Reshaping the Middle Eastern Order
- mmihpedit
- Dec 25, 2025
- 7 min read
Sang-min Lee (Editorial Advisory Board Member)
U.S. President Donald Trump signed legislation on December 19 repealing the Syria sanctions law (the Caesar Act) that had been imposed during the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since 2019. The bill, which had previously passed both chambers of the U.S. Congress, was something President Trump had promised during his first meeting with newly inaugurated Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia last May. At the time, President Trump had suspended the effectiveness of the U.S. sanctions on Syria for six months through an executive order, and with this signing, the Syria sanctions law was permanently repealed (Shaheen & Wilson, 2025; PBS NewsHour, 2025).
The repeal of the U.S. sanctions on Syria, which had been enacted in response to human rights abuses committed by the Assad regime, is considered essential for the Syrian government led by President al-Sharaa to rebuild the country. After 14 years of civil war that left the entire country devastated, Syria requires large-scale investment from international organizations and private companies, and the lifting of sanctions is a necessary precondition for such investment (Shaheen & Wilson, 2025; World Bank, 2025).
United States Permanently Lifts Sanctions on Syria
President al-Sharaa stated on the 19th that he was deeply grateful to President Trump and members of the U.S. Congress for lifting the sanctions on Syria. He also expressed his gratitude to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for their contributions to the sanctions relief. These leaders had urged President Trump to meet with President al-Sharaa during his visit to Saudi Arabia last May and to lift U.S. sanctions on Syria.
With the lifting of the sanctions, the Syrian government expects foreign investors to explore investment opportunities in Syria and participate in reconstruction efforts. The World Bank estimates that Syria’s reconstruction will require approximately $216 billion (World Bank, 2025).
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has recently been pressuring Israel in ongoing negotiations over a security agreement between Israel and Syria, arguing that while Syria is cooperative, Israel needs to adopt a more forward-looking stance. In the current negotiations, Israel is demanding that the area stretching from south of Damascus to Israel’s northern border be designated as a demilitarized zone. Syria, however, opposes this demand, arguing that such a measure would create a security vacuum in the region and restrict the activities of the Syrian military. In response, President Trump has effectively supported Syria’s position, stating on his social media platform Truth Social that “it is very important for Israel to engage in clear and sincere dialogue with Syria” and that “nothing should stand in the way of Syria developing into a prosperous nation” (The Wall Street Journal, 2025). The reason President Trump is siding with Syria rather than Israel, a long-standing U.S. ally in the Middle East, is clear. Drawing Syria—long regarded over the past 70 years as a symbol of anti-Americanism in the Middle East—into the pro-American camp is seen as crucial to reshaping the regional order.
From 70 Years of Anti-Americanism to a Pro-American Turn: Syria
In 1956, Syria signed an agreement with the Soviet Union and became a core member of the anti-American alliance in the Middle East. In 1967, Syria attacked Israel alongside Egypt and Jordan using weapons supplied by the Soviet Union, and again in 1973, it launched a surprise attack on Israel together with Egypt using Soviet arms. Subsequently, Egypt expelled Soviet military advisers in the late 1970s and shifted to the U.S. camp, becoming the first Arab country to recognize Israel, while Syria maintained its anti-American stance.
President Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria from 1970 to 2000, and his son Bashar al-Assad, who ruled from 2000 until December of last year, strengthened military and security ties with Iran, Russia, and North Korea after the collapse of the Soviet Union, maintaining a shared line of anti-American and anti-Israeli policy.
Syria served as a transit route for Iranian weapons and supplies to Iran’s proxy forces, Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. When the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, Russia intervened by deploying troops on Syrian territory in 2015 in support of the Assad regime, turning Syria into a strategic foothold for Russian influence in the Middle East.
However, the situation changed dramatically in December 2024 when the Assad regime suddenly collapsed due to rebel forces. The rebel forces that took power, including President al-Sharaa, are Sunni Muslims and are hostile toward Shiite Iran, which had supported the Alawite Assad regime. As a result, the so-called “Shiite belt” linking Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah collapsed. Russian forces that had supported the Assad regime were also forced to withdraw from Syria, weakening Russia’s influence in the Middle East (Shaheen & Wilson, 2025).
Al-Sharaa Becomes the First Syrian President to Visit the White House
Against this backdrop, President al-Sharaa visited the White House on November 8, becoming the first Syrian president to do so. This visit was a dramatic symbol of Syria’s shift toward the United States after having stood on the anti-American front alongside Russia and Iran for decades.
In an interview with Fox News at the time, President al-Sharaa declared that a new era had begun and made clear his intention to strengthen relations with the United States. During the meeting, President Trump and President al-Sharaa agreed to establish embassies in each other’s capitals, and Syria announced that it would participate in U.S.-led operations to eliminate ISIS (the Islamic State).
Ten days later, on November 18, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited the White House for the first time. President Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed an agreement on bilateral military cooperation, and the United States designated Saudi Arabia as a non-NATO ally. They also agreed to provide Saudi Arabia with advanced U.S. F-35 fighter jets. These measures were intended to reassure Saudi Arabia’s security concerns and encourage trust in the United States (The Wall Street Journal, 2025).
This marked a contrast with former President Joe Biden, who had maintained a strained relationship with the crown prince. President Biden avoided direct contact with him, citing his alleged involvement in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and restricted arms sales to Saudi Arabia. In response, when oil prices surged due to the war in Ukraine, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman refused President Biden’s request for increased oil production during Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia.
Underlying these developments was a weakening of U.S. influence in the Middle East following Washington’s failure to achieve its goal of democratizing Iraq through the Iraq War and its withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 after 20 years of conflict.
Amid this, the Syrian civil war erupted, ISIS rose to prominence, China expanded its influence in the Middle East as the region’s largest oil importer, and Russia returned militarily to the region through its intervention in Syria in 2015. As an anti-American, anti-Israeli Shiite axis linking Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah emerged, Sunni Gulf monarchies such as Saudi Arabia reduced their dependence on the United States and diversified their relations with China, Russia, and Europe. A notable example was Saudi Arabia’s participation in talks to normalize relations with Iran mediated by China in 2023.
However, after President Trump’s return to office, under the banner of “peace through strength,” Israel strengthened security cooperation with the United States after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and moved to suppress Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, including launching airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. As a result, Gulf monarchies such as Saudi Arabia have begun to realign with the United States, emphasizing that “security lies with America.”
In addition, when President Trump met President al-Sharaa as requested and lifted sanctions on Syria, and announced on November 24 that the Muslim Brotherhood—a Sunni fundamentalist group regarded as a regime threat by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt—would be designated as a terrorist organization, Gulf states and Egypt moved even more firmly into the U.S. camp (The White House, 2025a).
Trump: “For the First Time in 3,000 Years, Peace Has Come to the Middle East”
On December 5, the Trump administration released its National Security Strategy (NSS) report. The report stated that the Middle East had been the top priority of U.S. foreign policy for the past half-century, citing its role as the world’s most important energy supplier, a major arena of great-power competition, and a region rife with conflicts capable of threatening the U.S. homeland.
However, the report emphasized that after the launch of the second Trump administration, diversification of energy supplies had turned the United States back into an energy exporter, superpower competition in the Middle East had faded and been replaced by rivalry among regional powers, and the United States now held the most advantageous position in this process. This, the report argued, was due to President Trump’s successful reactivation of alliances with Gulf states, other Arab partners, and Israel (The White House, 2025b).
The report assessed that although conflicts remain, they are less severe than before; Iran, the main source of instability, has been significantly weakened by Israeli military actions and U.S. strikes on nuclear facilities; and while the Israeli–Palestinian conflict remains unresolved, Hamas’s sponsors have been weakened. It further predicted that although Syria remains a potential problem, it could be stabilized and return as a responsible and positive member of the region if support from the United States, Arab states, Israel, and Türkiye is combined.
The report also criticized the U.S. push for Middle Eastern democratization, arguing that forcing the region to abandon its traditional and historical modes of governance had been a misguided experiment. It concluded that because the Middle East is no longer a constant source of provocation or an imminent wellspring of catastrophe as it once was, the era in which the region dominated U.S. foreign policy has come to an end.
In a national address on the evening of December 17, President Trump stated that for the first time in 3,000 years, peace was coming to the Middle East. As these remarks suggest, the world is cautiously watching to see whether the reshaping of the Middle Eastern order under the second Trump administration will translate into lasting peace in the region (Shaheen & Wilson, 2025).
References
PBS NewsHour. (2025). Syria welcomes permanent repeal of sweeping U.S. sanctions imposed during the Assad regime.https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/syria-welcomes-permanent-repeal-of-sweeping-u-s-sanctions-imposed-during-assad-regime
Shaheen, J., & Wilson, J. (2025). One year on, U.S. sanctions are killing Syria’s recovery. Foreign Policy.https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/16/syria-caesar-sanctions-assad-sharaa-iran-russia/
The Wall Street Journal. (2025). Ahmed al-Sharaa, Donald Trump, and the future of Syria.https://www.wsj.com/opinion/ahmed-al-sharaa-donald-trump-white-house-syria-iran-israel-5ceae1aa
The Wall Street Journal. (2025). Israel’s Netanyahu says Syria deal is possible with caveat after Trump reproach.https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israels-netanyahu-says-syria-deal-is-possible-with-caveat-after-trump-reproach-42687fee
The Wall Street Journal. (2025). Saudi crown prince leaves U.S. tour empowered on the global stage.https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/saudi-crown-prince-leaves-u-s-tour-empowered-on-the-global-stage-ea227802
The Wall Street Journal. (2025). Syria to join coalition against Islamic State as country’s president visits Trump.https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/syria-to-join-coalition-against-islamic-state-as-countrys-president-visits-trump-ed16328c
The White House. (2025a, November). Designation of certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists.https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/11/designation-of-certain-muslim-brotherhood-chapters-as-foreign-terrorist-organizations-and-specially-designated-global-terrorists/
The White House. (2025b, December). 2025 national security strategy (PDF).
World Bank. (2025, October 21). The Syrian conflict: Physical damage and reconstruction assessment (2011–2024).
