President Donald Trump met Wednesday with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, going face-to-face with the onetime insurgent leader who spent years imprisoned by U.S. forces after being captured in Iraq.

The meeting came after Trump—who is in the middle of a three-country tour of the Middle East—delivered a speech on Tuesday in which he announced his plan to lift U.S. sanctions on Syria in support of "a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace.”

U.S. President Donald Trump will meet Syria's president in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, following a surprise announcement that the United States would lift all sanctions on the Islamist-led government despite lingering concerns about its leaders' former ties to Al Qaeda.