DAMASCUS, SYRIA (MAY 13, 2025) (ANADOLU - ACCESS ALL) SHOTLIST: 1. VARIOUS OF SYRIANS SINGING SONGS, DANCING AND CELEBRATING US PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMPS DECISION TO LIFT SANCTIONS ON SYRIA (NIGHT SHOTS) DAMASCUS, SYRIA - MAY 13: Syrian people flocked to the streets in the capital Damascus to celebrate US President Donald Trump’s decision to lift sanctions, on Tuesday (May 13). Trump said during the 2025 Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh that he would order the removal of “brutal and crippling” US sanctions on Syria to give that country “a chance at greatness.” Syrian people gathered in the streets of the capital, singed and danced over the Trump’s decision. Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, kicking off a Gulf tour that will continue with visits to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates—his first major international trip of his second term besides a brief visit to Italy for Pope Francis’ funeral. A new transitional administration was formed in Syria in January following the fall of the Assad regime. Bashar al-Assad, who ruled Syria for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia in December, ending the Baath Party’s decades-long grip on power that began in 1963. Syria said US President Donald Trump’s remarks on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia about lifting sanctions imposed on the country are a “pivotal turning point." “We welcome President Donald Trump’s recent comments about lifting the sanctions imposed on Syria in response to war crimes committed by the Assad regime,” Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani told the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).