Syrian president arrives in U.S. for meeting with Trump

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the U.S. on Saturday for ahead of his landmark meeting with President Trump, 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 Mr. 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-Sharaa addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York City in September. 

The interim leader met Mr. Trump for the first time in Riyadh during Mr. Trump’s Middle East tour in May.

U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said earlier this month that al-Sharaa would “hopefully” sign an agreement to join the international U.S.-led alliance against the Islamic State.

The State Department’s decision Friday to delist al-Sharaa as global terrorist was widely expected.

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement al-Sharaa’s government had been meeting U.S. 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 U.S. delisting would promote “regional security and stability as well as an inclusive, Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process.”

Al-Sharaa joined al Qaeda about 20 years ago, and was arrested in Iraq in 2005. He spent six years in American and Iraqi prisons before his release in 2011. He then led an affiliate of al Qaeda in Syria, and was designated as a terrorist by the U.S. in 2013. In 2016, he renounced his allegiance to al Qaeda. 

In November 2024, al-Sharaa led opposition forces in a stunning offensive that toppled the Assad regime.

In an interview with “60 Minutes” last month in Syria, al-Sharaa said that “there are entire generations” of Syrians “that have suffered tremendous psychological trauma” under the Assad regime.