Salaries would go up. Bread and gasoline would be cheaper. The electricity would come on for more than a few hours per day. The reconstruction of destroyed towns and cities would begin.

President Trump’s announcement in a speech in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday that he would lift U.S. sanctions on Syria unleashed hope across the country that life would improve after more than a decade of war and deprivation.

“It will put us at ease,” said Sami al-Hajj, a pharmacist. “Before, we were scared for the future, for us and our children. But this will open up opportunities.”

Analysts and many others in Syria see lifting U.S. sanctions as crucial to enabling the new government to rebuild an economy decimated by war. The sanctions effectively cut Syria out of the international banking system and isolated it from the global economy, blocking money transfers, restricting imports and barring activity by most international companies.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump also met with Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Shara, a former rebel leader who spearheaded the campaign that toppled the strongman Bashar al-Assad in December. It was the first time in 25 years the leaders of the two countries had met. The conversation, which lasted about half an hour, granted another stamp of recognition to Mr. al-Shara, who is still designated as a terrorist by the U.S. government for his past affiliation with Al Qaeda.

In a social media post after the meeting, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that Mr. Trump had urged Mr. al-Shara to reach a peace accord with Israel, expel foreign terrorists, help the United States fight the Islamic State and take over detention centers that hold Islamic State militants in northeastern Syria. The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was expected to meet with Mr. al-Shara’s foreign minister to discuss the details.