Syrian President Sharaa holds closed-door meeting with Trump at White House after terror blacklist removal

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa met US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday for historic talks, just days after being removed from Washington’s terrorism blacklist.

Sharaa, whose rebel forces toppled longtime leader Bashar al-Assad last year, becomes the first Syrian head of state to visit the White House since Syria gained independence in 1946.

Previously linked to Al-Qaeda, Sharaa’s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was delisted as a terrorist organisation by the US in July, while Sharaa himself was removed from the blacklist last Friday.

“The president of Syria arrived at the White House… The meeting between President Trump and President al-Sharaa has also started,” AFP quoted the White House as saying in a statement.

In an unusual move for the typically camera-friendly Trump, both the arrival of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and his meeting with the US president were held behind closed doors, with no media allowed.

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Trump had said last week that Sharaa was doing a “very good job. It’s a tough neighborhood. And he’s a tough guy. But I got along with them very well and a lot of progress has been made with Syria.”

Since assuming power, Syria’s new leadership has sought to distance itself from its violent past and project a more moderate image to both ordinary Syrians and international observers.

Sharaa’s visit to the White House is “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,” Michael Hanna, US programme director at the International Crisis Group, told AFP.

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The interim president had first met Trump in Saudi Arabia during the US president’s regional tour in May, when the 79-year-old US leader described Sharaa, 43, as “a young, attractive guy.”

Terror blacklist removal

The US envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said earlier this month that Sharaa may on Monday 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.

Washington has also been pushing for some kind of pact to end decades of enmity between Syria and Israel, part of Trump’s wider goal to shore up the fragile Gaza ceasefire with a broader Middle East peace settlement.

For his part, Sharaa is expected to seek US funds for Syria, which faces significant challenges in rebuilding after 13 years of devastating civil war.

After his arrival in Washington, Sharaa over the weekend met with IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva over possible aid.

He also played basketball with US CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper and Kevin Lambert, the head of the international anti-IS operation in Iraq, according to a social media post by Syria’s foreign minister.

Sharaa’s jihadist past has caused controversy in some quarters but the State Department’s decision Friday to remove Sharaa from the blacklist was widely expected.

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Sharaa’s government had been meeting US demands on working to find missing Americans and on eliminating any remaining chemical weapons.

Sharaa’s trip comes weeks after he became the first Syrian president in decades to address the UN General Assembly in New York. Last week Washington led a Security Council vote to remove UN sanctions against him.

The Syrian president has also been making diplomatic outreach towards Washington’s rivals. He met Russian President Vladimir Putin in October in their first meeting since the removal of Assad, a key Kremlin ally.

With inputs from agencies