Trump vowed to do everything he can to help Syria after talks with Sharaa in the White House

(Patria) - US President Donald Trump vowed to do everything he can to make Syria successful after significant talks with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former leader of Al-Qaeda, whom Washington had until recently considered a foreign terrorist, Reuters reported.

Sharaa’s visit marked the culmination of a stunning year for the rebel-turned-ruler who ousted long-time autocratic leader Bashar al-Assad and has since been traveling the world trying to portray himself as a moderate leader seeking to unite his war-torn nation and end its decades of international isolation.

A primary goal of Sharaa’s in Washington was the complete lifting of the toughest US sanctions. As he met Trump behind closed doors, the US Treasury Department announced a 180-day extension of the enforcement suspension of the so-called 2019 Caesar sanctions, but only the US Congress can lift them entirely.

Trump met Sharaa in the first visit by a Syrian president to Washington, six months after their meeting in Saudi Arabia, where the US leader announced plans to lift sanctions, and days after the US said he was no longer a “specially designated global terrorist.”

In an unusually muted welcome, Sharaa, who once had a $10 million US bounty on his head, arrived without the fanfare usually given to foreign guests. He entered through a side door where journalists had only a brief glimpse, rather than through the main West Wing entrance where cameras often capture Trump greeting VIPs.

Speaking to reporters, Trump praised his guest as a “strong leader” and expressed confidence in him.

“We will do everything we can to make Syria successful,” he said. Trump also touched on Sharaa’s controversial past.

“We all have a difficult past,” he said.

Sharaa later told Fox News that his connection to the militant group was in the past and was not discussed at the meeting with Trump. Syria is now considered a geopolitical ally of Washington, not a threat, Sharaa said.

Promising “continued sanctions relief,” the Treasury Department issued a new
order replacing a May 23 waiver on the enforcement of the 2019 Caesar Act, which imposed sweeping sanctions for human rights abuses under Assad. The move essentially extended the waiver for another 180 days.

Sharaa, 43, took power last year after his Islamist fighters ousted long-time Syrian President Assad in an offensive days later, on December 8.

Syria has since been moving at breakneck speed away from Assad’s key allies Iran and Russia and toward Turkey, the Gulf and Washington.

Security was also expected to be a major focus of Sharaa’s meeting with Trump, who has sought to help Syria through its fragile transition.

The US is mediating talks on a possible security pact between Syria and Israel, which remains wary of Sharaa’s former militant ties. Reuters reported last week that the US plans to establish a military presence at an air base in Damascus.

Syria recently signed a declaration of political cooperation with the Washington-led “Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS,” the Syrian information minister said in a post on social media X on Monday.

Planned assassination

Just hours before the significant talks, news emerged of two separate Islamic State plots to assassinate Sharaa that had been thwarted in recent months, according to a senior Syrian security official and a senior Middle East official.

Over the weekend, the Syrian Interior Ministry launched a campaign targeting Islamic State cells across the country, arresting more than seventy suspects, state media reported.

Sharaa’s arrival at the White House was muted. Most heads of state are driven up a driveway adorned with the guest’s national flags. But on Monday, there was none of that.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who was at the White House meeting with
Trump administration officials, was invited to join part of the meeting, he told Turkish media.

After the meeting, Trump sharply rebuked US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had posted on social media X that she “would really love to see non-stop White House meetings about domestic policy, not foreign policy and foreign leaders.”

Saying the Georgia Republican had “lost her way,” he added: “I have to view the presidency as a world situation... We could have a world on fire where wars very easily come to our shores.”

As Sharaa left the complex, he stepped out of his motorcade just outside the White House and briefly greeted an enthusiastic crowd of supporters, some of whom waved Syrian flags.

Sharaa was expected to strongly advocate for the lifting of the Caesar Act, which would help spur global investment in a country devastated by fourteen years of war and whose reconstruction, according to World Bank estimates, will cost more than $200 billion.

Several influential members of Congress have called for the lifting of the 2019 sanctions, adopted in response to human rights abuses under Assad. Several of Trump’s fellow Republicans want the sanctions to remain in place, but that could change if Trump applies pressure.

Syria’s social fabric has recently been tested. New outbreaks of sectarian violence have caused more than 2,500 deaths since Assad’s fall, deepening the wounds of the civil war and calling into question the ability of the new rulers to govern all Syrians.

Trump’s focus on Syria comes as his administration seeks to maintain a US-brokered ceasefire deal in Gaza between Israel and Hamas and push its twenty-point plan to end the two-year war.

Dramatic changes

Sharaa’s transformation is no less impressive than his country’s turnaround. He joined Al-Qaeda in Iraq around the time of the US-led invasion in 2003 and spent years in US custody there, before returning to Syria and joining the rebellion against Assad.

In 2013, the US designated Sharaa, then known as Abu Mohammad al-Golani, as a terrorist for his Al-Qaeda ties. He broke ties with the group in 2016 and consolidated his influence in northwestern Syria.

The US delisted Sharaa in December, and just last week, the United Nations Security Council lifted terrorism-related sanctions against him and his interior minister, Anas Khattab.