Syria’s al-Sharaa visits US after combating terrorism

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the United States on Saturday for an official visit, according to the news agency, a day after Washington hoped to enlist Damascus in its global coalition against ISIL, or ISIS.

Sharaa, will meet the US President Donald Trump on Monday at his official residence, White House. This came weeks after Syria’s Ministry of Interior announced a “large-scale security operation” across the country, targeting terrorist groups.

This visit will be marked a landmark one, as the Syrian President visited the US for the first time since the country’s independence in 1946, according to researchers.  

Signing of an agreement 

Sharaa met Trump for the first time in Riyadh in May. According to news agency AFP, Tom Barrack who is the US envoy to Syria earlier this month reported that Sharaa would sign an agreement to join the international US-led alliance against the Islamic State (IS) group, as a war against terrorism.  

The US also plans to build a military base near the Syrian capital city, to combat terrorism, coordinate the humanitarian efforts, and observe developments between Syria and Israel.  

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The State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said that the Sharaa government has been meeting the demands of the US and working to find the Americans who went missing eliminating the terrorist activities.  

War against terrorism 

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 IS, according to the official SANA news agency.

It said the raids targeted locations where IS sleeper cells remain, including Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, Homs, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, Damascus.

A landmark visit 

Sharaa, who is referred to as ex-jihadist visiting the US to address the UN General Assembly in New York, comes as a milestone step in the relations between Washington and Damascus.  

As the US recently in July delisted  Al-Qaeda, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as a terrorist group, Syria’s new leaders sought to break their bond from the violent past and present a modest image to tackle the ordinary citizens and gain global recognition.  

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(With inputs from AFP)