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Before the meeting, Donald Trump met with Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. He later delivered a speech at the GCC summit.

Highlights from Trump’s speech:

"The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, and all our friends—the Gulf countries—play a crucial role in a stable, prosperous, and peaceful Middle East.

We have seen great unity and friendship among the leaders, regions, and countries in the area. Many nations around the world look on with envy.

If we can eliminate a few bad actors and stop their evils, this region can enjoy tremendous opportunities, stability, and peace.

The previous U.S. President created a negative atmosphere by allowing billions of dollars to be funneled to terrorist groups through Iran and its proxies. Biden turned his back on Gulf allies—but those days are over.

We are firmly committed to our friends here. We will stand shoulder to shoulder against all threats we face.

I want to make a deal with Iran, but Iran must stop supporting terrorism and abandon its nuclear weapon ambitions. Anyone who says Iran should have a nuclear weapon does not want peace or stability.

With the sanctions and extremely destructive secondary sanctions we imposed, Iran can no longer fund terrorism.

We carried out more than 1,100 strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, and last week they agreed to halt the attacks. They will no longer target our commercial ships.

In just 100 days, we have done what many presidents couldn’t accomplish in four years.

On Gaza—we want security and dignity for the Palestinian people, just as many of you do. But this is impossible while Gaza’s leaders continue to kill innocent civilians, commit sexual assaults, and kidnappings. I am grateful to the leaders here for their efforts to end this conflict. All hostages must be released. That will be a launching point for peace."

We are now discussing normalizing relations with Syria’s new administration. I met with President Sharaa, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will also meet the Syrian Foreign Minister in Turkey.

After meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, I ordered the lifting of sanctions on Syria. These sanctions had paralyzed the country, and lifting them will give Syria a second chance. We will lift all sanctions on Syria."