Dubai | Syrians cheered Trump's announcement that America will move to lift sanctions on the beleaguered Middle East nation. People in the capital, Damascus, whistled and cheered the news as fireworks lit the night sky.

The state-run SANA news agency published video and photographs of Syrians cheering in Umayyad Square. Others honked their car horns or waved the new Syrian flag in celebration.

Trump's planned meeting with the country's rebel-turned-leader Ahmad al-Sharaa represents a remarkable political turnaround for Syria, which has been locked in a bitter war since the 2011 Arab Spring.

In December, rebels led by al-Sharaa toppled Syrian autocrat Bashar Assad's government.

Al-Sharaa, who was imprisoned in Iraq for his role in the insurgency following the 2003 US-led invasion, will be the first Syrian leader to meet an American president since Hafez Assad met Bill Clinton in Geneva in 2000.

Syrian's interim government hails US sanction decision Syria's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday night called Trump's statement about the sanctions a pivotal turning point for the Syrian people as they “seek to emerge from a long and painful chapter of war.” The statement also was careful to describe the sanctions as coming “in response to the war crimes committed by the Assad regime against the Syrian people,” rather than the war-torn nation's new interim government.

“The removal of these sanctions offers a vital opportunity for Syria to pursue stability, self-sufficiency and meaningful national reconstruction, led by and for the Syrian people,” the statement added.