Since President Trump’s embrace of the new Syrian leader, Israeli airstrikes on the country have subsided. Israel has launched more than 700 attacks on Syria in the months since Islamist rebels toppled the dictator Bashar al-Assad, one of them a recent airstrike that landed just feet from the presidential palace in Damascus.

US President Donald Trump asked Syria's new leader on Wednesday to normalise relations with Israel after he offered a major boost to the war-ravaged country by announcing the lifting of sanctions. The White House said that Trump asked the Syrian leader to normalise relations with Israel by joining the so-called Abraham Accords signed by some Gulf Arab states.

The Trump administration announced Friday that it would ease sanctions against Syria, making good on President Trump’s promise from earlier this month to roll back penalties against the country roiled by years of civil war.