Syrian president to hold talks with Trump at White House

Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, will on Monday hold talks with Donald Trump at the White House, the first such official visit by a Syrian leader since national independence in 1946. He is expected to push for a full lifting of the remaining sanctions on his war-ravaged country.

Sharaa, whose Islamist rebel forces toppled the longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, has courted the US president to try to reverse the economic restrictions imposed during the 13-year civil war, arguing they are no longer justified.

His media adviser, Ahmad Zeidan, told Saudi-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya the “foremost” issue on Sharaa’s agenda is a repeal of the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019 which imposed sweeping sanctions over human rights abuses by Assad’s regime during the conflict.

Trump met the Syrian leader for the first time last May in Riyadh on the sidelines of a Gulf Cooperation Council summit. Before the talks, he praised Sharaa to reporters as a “young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter”.

Trump then ordered most sanctions lifted in a big US policy shift. But the Caesar Act remains in place and will require a congressional vote to remove its particularly stringent sanctions permanently.

Sharaa, who as a militant leader had a $10m (£7.6m) US government bounty on his head, is the former leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the rebel group that led the military operation to topple Assad.

On Thursday, Washington led a vote by the UN security council to quash UN sanctions against him. In September the ex-jihadist, who had been previously affiliated with al-Qaida, became the first Syrian president in decades to address the UN general assembly in New York.

“We have a big mission to build the economy,” Sharaa said at a summit on the sidelines of that gathering. “Syria has a diverse workforce. They love to work, it’s in its genes. So don’t be worried, just lift the sanctions and you will see the results.”

In October, the World Bank put a “conservative best estimate” of the cost of rebuilding Syria at $216bn (£164bn).

The US state department on Friday removed Sharaa from a terrorism blacklist, a move that had been widely predicted, and the president is expected to officially join the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group during his visit to Washington.

Syria this month carried out nationwide preemptive operations targeting IS cells. The interior ministry said Syrian security forces carried out 61 raids, with 71 people arrested and explosives and weapons seized.

Amid warming relations, the state department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Sharaa’s government had been meeting US 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.

He added the axing of the punitive measures would promote “regional security and stability as well as an inclusive, Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process”.

Sharaa and his team have been at pains to present themselves as moderates ready to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for the battle-scarred country after 13 years of civil war, and work constructively with regional powers.

However the Israeli government is said to oppose a full lifting of US sanctions, arguing it would cede key leverage in Washington’s dealings with Damascus.

While Israel and Syria remain formally in a state of war, with Israel still occupying Syria’s Golan Heights, Trump has expressed hope that the two countries can normalise relations.

Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report.