Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa arrived in the United States on Saturday for an official visit that includes a scheduled meeting with President Donald Trump next week, a diplomatic gesture that was previously unimaginable.
Al-Sharaa arrived a day after the US removed the Syrian president from a terrorism sanctions list, just one day after the United Nations Security Council lifted similar sanctions.
Al-Sharaa led the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militant group, previously affiliated with the US-designated terror group al-Qaeda, that overthrew the regime of Bashar Assad last year.
Shortly after Assad’s ouster in December 2024, the US lifted a $10 million (€8.6 million) reward it had earlier put in place for al-Sharaa’s arrest.
In May, Trump signed an executive order to end American sanctions on Syria, with an aim to boost the nation’s war-ravaged economy, and met with al-Sharaa for the first time in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Sharaa was also in New York in September and he was the first Syrian president to address the United Nations General Assembly in decades.
Still, his official visit to the White House is considered a first by a Syrian president since the country gained its independence in 1946, analysts told the French AFP news agency.
Al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House: What’s on his agenda?
The Syrian president is scheduled to meet Trump on Monday.
Earlier this month, US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said al-Sharaa was expected to “hopefully” sign an agreement to join the US-led alliance against the Islamic State militant group.
A diplomatic source in Syria told AFP that the US was planning on setting up a military base near the Syrian capital Damascus. The base aimed to “coordinate humanitarian aid and observe developments between Syria and Israel,” AFP quoted the anonymous source as saying.
Al-Sharaa is also widely expected to seek US funding for Syria’s reconstruction, with the World Bank having estimated the cost at $216 billion, and having described that figure as a “conservative best estimate.”
What is the current state of affairs in Syria?
Since ousting Syria’s autocrat Bashar Assad in December last year, Syria’s new administration has been trying to distance itself from its past of militancy, as it forges new alliances with Western powers.
Al-Sharaa’s government has stressed it was pursuing a moderate leadership that respected the country’s many minorities.
However, the past year has seen several incidents of sectarian violence among different minority groups.
Meanwhile, experts have raised the alarm over reports of targeted killings in recent months, as the country struggles to put its deeply polarizing 13-year civil war behind it.
Edited by: Roshni Majumdar
