Donald Trump's first day in the Middle East: multi-million dollar trade deals and lifting of sanctions

U.S. President Donald Trump landed in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the first stop on a Middle East tour that includes Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

This is the Republican's first round of trips abroad. Although his choice may surprise some, this visit has a clear objective: to seal multimillion-dollar deals.

On the first day of the tour, the White House announced that Saudi Arabia will purchase nearly $142 billion in arms, in what it described as the largest arms deal "in history," although Trump alluded to a higher figure during his first term.

Washington also confirmed that Saudi Arabian company DataVolt will invest $20 billion in U.S.-based artificial intelligence companies, and that tech firms like Google will invest in both countries, a positive development for Saudi Arabia, which has long been subject to restrictions on advanced U.S. technology.

Furthermore, Saudi Arabia intends to strengthen and expand its trade partnership with the United States in the coming months to reach $1 trillion in various areas of the economy, defense, and security. This was announced by Saudi Prime Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after meeting with Trump at the Saudi Royal Palace.

Bin Salman maintained that bilateral investments have been "one of the main foundations" of the partnership between Saudi Arabia and the US, and asserted that " Saudi Arabia's economy is currently the largest in the region and the largest economic partner of the US in the region and one of the fastest-growing economies in the G20."

Elon Musk, the tech mogul and senior advisor to President Trump, was also in Riyadh on Tuesday.

Another big announcement was the lifting of US sanctions on Syria.

"After discussing the situation in Syria with the Crown Prince and with Turkish President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan, who asked me the other day for something very similar, and who are friends of mine who greatly respect the Middle East, I am going to lift the sanctions against Syria," Trump announced Tuesday.

During his speech at the investment forum in Saudi Arabia, he stated that the sanctions against the Arab country have been "devastating," although they have played "an important role."

But now is Syria's time to "shine," after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad last December , and instead of the country shining, "we are taking away everything they have left."

"I think it will bring peace to the people," he said of the lifting of these sanctions, adding that Syria has a new government that he hopes will "succeed in stabilizing."

Syria is subject to numerous international sanctions, imposed mainly during Assad's rule. There are sanctions against the Syrian Central Bank and individuals and entities that supported the Assad regime.

The new authorities are seeking to eliminate these sanctions in order to achieve economic recovery.

On Wednesday, Trump will meet with his Syrian counterpart, Ahmed al-Sharaa, during a joint visit to Saudi Arabia.

A White House source told Efe that "President Trump has agreed to say hello to the Syrian president" during the Gulf Council leaders' meeting, although he did not elaborate or confirm whether it would be a brief formality or a full-blown meeting.

The new Syrian president was the founder of al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate, then known as al-Nusra Front, and was even held for nearly five years by US troops in Iraq , where al-Sharaa fought against them as part of the terrorist network after the 2003 invasion.

However, since the fall of Assad and his subsequent positioning as Syria's strongman, several US delegations of congressmen, businessmen, and even government officials have visited Damascus.

In other announcements, the US president announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and two White House special envoys will participate in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, Turkey, on Thursday.

*With information from Efe and AFP.