Syria's Sharaa pledges to form task force for missing Americans
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has promised the daughter of a missing American to take action as Damascus seeks relief from crippling US sanctions.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa told the daughter of a US citizen who disappeared in Syria that his government is creating a task force to search for unaccounted-for Americans, marking progress on one of the Trump administration's conditions for partial sanctions relief.
The news comes as President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington on Monday that he is considering easing the web of US sanctions imposed on Syria during its nearly 14-year civil war.
"We may take them off of Syria because we want to give them a fresh start," Trump said.
The Trump administration has been reluctant to engage with Sharaa, whose Islamist militant group toppled the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in December. It has not established formal relations with Sharaa’s interim government, nor has it sent its own personnel into Syria to help locate the missing Americans or meet with the country's new leadership.
