Syrian president arrives in US for landmark visit
Al Sharaa due to meet Trump at the White House on Monday
WASHINGTON: Syria’s President Ahmed Al Al Sharaa has arrived in the United States for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist.
Al Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar Al Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.
It’s the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts.
Al Al Sharaa’s White House visit: Key facts
First Syrian leader to visit Washington since 1946, with a meeting at the White House scheduled for Monday.
Detained in 2004 at a US-run prison in Iraq after joining Al Qaida-linked militants fighting American forces; later renounced extremism.
Led rebel forces that ousted Bashar Assad in December 2024, ending Syria’s 14-year civil war.
Met Donald Trump in May 2025 in Saudi Arabia, after which the US began lifting decades-old sanctions on Syria.
At his White House meeting, he is expected to sign Syria’s entry into the US-led coalition against Daesh.
Will press in Washington for a full repeal of the Caesar Act, whose sanctions were imposed on Assad’s government; the UN lifted personal sanctions on Al Sharaa last week.
Caesar Act repeal has cleared the Senate but awaits a House vote, with some lawmakers seeking conditions tied to minority rights and regional security.
Israel-Syria talks continue over a potential demilitarised zone south of Damascus as part of a broader regional realignment.
The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May.
Washington’s envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said earlier this month that Al Sharaa would “hopefully” sign an agreement to join the international US-led alliance against the Islamic State (IS) group.
The United States plans to establish a military base near Damascus “to coordinate humanitarian aid and observe developments between Syria and Israel,” a diplomatic source in Syria told AFP.
The State Department’s decision Friday to remove Al Sharaa from the blacklist was widely expected.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Al Sharaa’s government had been meeting US demands including on working to find missing Americans and on eliminating any remaining chemical weapons.
“These actions are being taken in recognition of the progress demonstrated by the Syrian leadership after the departure of Bashar al-Assad and more than 50 years of repression under the Assad regime,” Pigott said.
The spokesman added that the US delisting would promote “regional security and stability as well as an inclusive, Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process.”
The Syrian interior ministry announced on Saturday that it had carried out 61 raids and made 71 arrests in a “proactive campaign to neutralise the threat” of Daesh (IS), according to the official SANA news agency.
It said the raids targeted locations where Daesh sleeper cells remain, including Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, Homs, Deir Al Zor, Raqqa and Damascus.
After his arrival, Al Sharaa met with representatives from Syrian organizations in Washington, according to his country’s official media.
The Syrian foreign minister posted a social media video, filmed before Al Sharaa’s departure, of him playing basketball with CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper and Kevin Lambert, the head of the international anti-Daesh operation in Iraq, alongside the caption “work hard, play harder.”
Transformation
Al Sharaa’s Washington trip comes after his landmark visit to the United Nations in September - his first time on US soil - where the ex-militant became the first Syrian president in decades to address the UN General Assembly in New York.
On Thursday, Washington led a vote by the Security Council to remove UN sanctions against him.
Formerly affiliated with Al Qaida, Al Sharaa’s group, Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), was delisted as a terrorist group by Washington as recently as July.
Since taking power, Syria’s new leaders have sought to break from their violent past and present a moderate image more tolerable to ordinary Syrians and foreign powers.
The White House visit “is further testament to the US commitment to the new Syria and a hugely symbolic moment for the country’s new leader, who thus marks another step in his astonishing transformation from militant leader to global statesman,” International Crisis Group US programme director Michael Hanna said.
Al Sharaa is expected to seek funds for Syria, which faces significant challenges in rebuilding after 13 years of civil war.
In October, the World Bank put a “conservative best estimate” of the cost of rebuilding Syria at $216 billion.
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