AFP USA

US President Donald Trump landed in Doha Wednesday after visiting Riyadh, where he urged Syria’s president to normalise with Israel after offering a major boost to the war-ravaged country by vowing to lift sanctions.Trump became the first US president in 25 years to meet a Syrian leader — Ahmed al-Sharaa, an erstwhile Islamist guerrilla and onetime jihadist who had been on a US wanted list and led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December.The interim Syrian president and Trump, wearing matching suits, shook hands as they met jointly in Riyadh with Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and, by video link, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — the key supporter of the new government in Damascus.While aboard Air Force One en route to Qatar, Trump poured praise on Sharaa, saying the meeting went “great” and describing the leader as a “young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.”Turkey and Saudi Arabia had both advocated reconciliation with Syria, but the move is the latest to put Trump at odds with Israel, which has expressed deep scepticism of Sharaa and ramped up its military strikes against Syria to degrade its longtime adversary’s military capabilities.When asked if Sharaa said he’d join the Abraham Accords and normalise relations with Israel, Trump said: “I told him, I hope you’re going to join once you’re straightened out and he said yes. But they have a lot of work to do.”Trump also asked Sharaa to deport Palestinian militants and tell foreign fighters to leave the country, as well as to take control of camps for captured Islamic State group fighters, currently run by Kurdish forces opposed by Turkey, the White House said.- Biggest applause -Syria’s foreign ministry hailed the meeting as “historic”, but did not mention the Abraham Accords. State media also did not mention normalisation.The ministry said the leaders discussed “avenues for Syrian-American partnership in counterterrorism efforts” and the importance of lifting sanctions and supporting reconstruction.After the longer-than-expected half-hour meeting, Trump said the Assad-era sanctions had been “really crippling”.”It’s not going to be easy anyway, so it gives them a good, strong chance, and it was my honour to do so,” Trump said, addressing Gulf Arab leaders.The former reality television host, always attuned to crowd sizes, took note of the rapturous reception when he announced the decision at a Riyadh investment forum Tuesday.”That was the thing that got the biggest applause from the room. We had a very crowded room with thousands of people,” Trump said.After the announcement, Syrians celebrated in cities across the country overnight.”These sanctions were imposed on Assad, but… now that Syria has been liberated, there will be a positive impact on industry, it’ll boost the economy and encourage people to return,” said soap factory owner Zain al-Jabali, 54, in Aleppo.Washington imposed sweeping restrictions on financial transactions with Syria during the brutal civil war and made clear it would use sanctions to punish anyone involved in reconstruction so long as Assad remained in power without accountability for atrocities.Trump gave no indication that the United States would remove Syria from its blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism — a designation dating back to 1979 over support to Palestinian militants that severely impedes investment.- Qatar plane controversy -A senior envoy of the Joe Biden administration met Sharaa in Damascus in December and called for commitments, including on the protection of minorities.In recent weeks, Syria has seen a series of bloody attacks on minority groups, including Alawites — the sect of the largely secular Assad family — and the Druze.Rabha Seif Allam of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo said easing US sanctions would help reintegrate Syria with the global economy by allowing bank transfers from investors and from millions of Syrians who fled during the civil war.”Lifting sanctions will give Syria a real opportunity to receive the funding needed to revive the economy, impose central state authority and launch reconstruction projects with clear Gulf support,” she said.Trump touched down at Hamad International Airport in Doha on Wednesday afternoon, where he was met by Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.The president later boasted that Qatar Airways had placed a “record” order worth more than $200 billion in jet sales as he signed a raft of deals. “It’s over $200 billion but 160 in terms of the jets. That’s fantastic. So that’s a record,” Trump said, adding: “It’s the largest order of jets in the history of Boeing. That’s pretty good.”Qatar has stirred controversy by offering a $400 million luxury aircraft to serve as a new Air Force One and then go to Trump’s personal use.The move raises major constitutional and ethical questions — as well as security concerns about a foreign power donating the ultra-sensitive presidential jet.

Sean “Diddy” Combs’s former partner Casandra Ventura is expected to be grilled by the fallen music mogul’s defense lawyers Wednesday as she returns to court for a second day of testimony.Singer and model Ventura, better known as Cassie, is also likely to face questions about allegations Combs raped her in 2018, as well as her graphic accounts of elaborate sex parties organized by the hip-hop icon.In an emotional first day of testimony, Ventura, who is heavily pregnant, also detailed beatings and abuse at the hands of Combs whom she painted as controlling and willing to wield his wealth and influence to get his way. She gave vivid accounts that will underpin much of the prosecution’s case against the music industry figure who is alleged to have used violence and blackmail to manipulate women over many years.Ventura recounted so-called “freak-off” sex parties saying she participated because she was “just in love and wanted to make (Combs) happy — to a point I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice.”Ventura, who is 17 years younger than Combs and first met him when she was 19, described how the mogul would sometimes urinate on her, or he would instruct one of the numerous sex workers he engaged to do so. – ‘It was disgusting’ -The escorts, almost always men, were paid thousands of dollars in cash after encounters.”It was disgusting. It was too much. It was overwhelming,” she said, adding that the hotel rooms used for the marathon sex sessions were often trashed, with establishments charging sizable cleaning and repair bills including for sheets stained with blood and urine.Combs’s defense team indicated that during cross-examination, which is expected as early as Wednesday afternoon, they would seek to emphasize that Ventura took drugs of her own free will, and behaved erratically.Ventura said that during the encounters she took drugs including ecstasy, ketamine and cocaine, and that the “drugs honestly helped” her meet Combs’s demands to stay awake for days on end.The drugs also had a “dissociative and numbing” effect, she said, “a way to not feel it for what it really was.”In a hotel surveillance clip from March 2016 shown to jurors Monday and again Tuesday, Combs is seen brutally beating and dragging Ventura down a hallway.The prosecution played portions of the footage while Ventura was on the stand.When asked why she didn’t fight back or get up, Ventura answered simply that curled up on the ground “felt like the safest place to be.” Combs’s defense team insists while some of his behavior was questionable it did not constitute racketeering and sex trafficking. He denies all counts and proceedings are expected to last eight to 10 weeks.