Syrian Prez arrives in US on historic visit to White House

Two decades ago, Ahmad al-Sharaa was held in a US-run detention centre in Iraq after joining al-Qaida militants fighting against American forces there. Few would have predicted that he would go on to become the first Syrian President to visit Washington since the country’s independence in 1946.

Since rebel forces he led ousted former Syrian President Bashar Assad last December, al-Sharaa — who cut ties with al-Qaida years earlier — has gone on a largely successful charm offensive to establish new ties with countries that had shunned Assad’s government after its brutal crackdown on protesters in 2011 spiralled into a 14-year civil war.

Al-Sharaa met with US President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia in May, where Trump announced that he would lift decades of sanctions.

The two men will meet again on Monday in Washington, where Syria is widely expected to officially join the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group. Al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday ahead of the meeting, according to Syrian state media. Apart from that agreement, al-Sharaa will use the visit to push for a full removal of the remaining sanctions imposed on his country. Al-Sharaa’s media adviser, Ahmad Zeidan, said the “foremost” issue on the President’s agenda in Washington was to call for a repeal of the Caesar Act, which imposed sweeping sanctions over human rights abuses by Assad’s government and security forces.

The Caesar sanctions are currently waived by presidential order, but a permanent repeal will require a congressional vote. Days ahead of al-Sharaa’s visit, Trump said, “He had moved to lift sanctions from Syria to give them a fighting shot, and I think (al-Sharaa’s) doing a very good job so far”. “It’s a tough neighbourhood and he’s a tough guy, but I got along with him very well, and a lot of progress has been made with Syria,” he said.