President Trump met Syria’s new president here after announcing that he would lift crippling economic sanctions on the war-torn country and signing a bevy of Saudi investment deals on the first day of his Middle East tour.

Shara, who once led a branch of Al Qaeda, was the first time in 25 years that the leaders of the United States and Syria had met.

DAMASCUS, Syria — President Donald Trump’s announcement from Saudi Arabia that his administration intends to lift wide-ranging sanctions on Syria sparked jubilation in the capital, Damascus, as a population long impoverished by the restrictions was finally able to hope for relief.