Trump to Meet With Zelenskyy, Al-Sharaa07/06 06:17

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump plans to meet with Ukrainian 
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Wednesday 
while attending the NATO summit in Turkey, the White House said. Those 
discussions will come as Kyiv tries to refocus Trump's attention on the 
conflict with Moscow and as Trump has publicly mused about Syria's role in the 
Middle East.

   White House spokesperson Anna Kelly confirmed the meetings in a call with 
reporters while previewing the upcoming summit in Ankara, where Trump also 
plans to meet with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday. Before 
returning to the United States on Wednesday, Trump is scheduled to have a news 
conference, Kelly said.

   Trump's meeting with Zelenskyy comes as Russia's war in Ukraine is now in 
its fifth year. Both Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin held phone 
calls with Trump on Saturday, congratulating him on the July Fourth 
commemoration of the 250th anniversary of American independence.

   Zelenskyy said in a statement on X after his call that he and Trump spoke 
about the situation on the front lines of the war, where analysts say Russian 
advances have sputtered. Ukraine, has stepped up its attacks on Moscow and 
demonstrated its ability to strike deeper into Russia.

   The Ukrainian leader said there is "a real prospect of ending this war," and 
that conversation would continue at the NATO summit in Ankara.

   Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said that in Putin's call with 
Trump, the Republican president reaffirmed his "readiness to help achieve a 
quick cessation of hostilities and search for peaceful solutions to settle the 
crisis" in Ukraine.

   A senior U.S. official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity on 
Sunday to describe the administration's approach said Trump feels a sense of 
urgency to bring the war to an end and will speak to Zelenskyy about how to do 
that. Trump is expected to follow up with Putin after his meeting with 
Zelenskyy in Ankara, the official said.

   U.S. officials did not provide any details about the goals for Trump's 
meeting with al-Sharaa.

   As Trump has grown frustrated with Israel's war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, 
which has complicated negotiations in the Iran war, the U.S. leader has 
repeatedly stunned many in the region by suggesting that Syria instead fight 
Hezbollah.

   Al-Sharaa, who led an Islamic insurgent group and whose rebel forces ousted 
Bashar Assad as Syria's president, has said he has no interest in doing so. He 
has suggested Trump's comments were misconstrued, even as Trump has repeated 
them.