Al-Shara’s visit, scheduled for November 10, will be the first visit by a Syrian president to the White House.
US President Donald Trump is scheduled to host and hold talks with Syria’s interim leader Ahmad al-Shara on November 10, according to Washington’s special envoy to Damascus, marking the first visit by a Syrian president to the US capital.
Tom Barrack, the US special envoy to Syria, told Axios on Saturday that al-Shara will sign an agreement to join the US-led international coalition against Islamic State (ISIS) during his visit.
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Reuters also reported, citing Syrian sources familiar with the matter, that the trip is expected to take place within the next two weeks.
No Syrian president has ever made an official visit to Washington, according to the U.S. State Department’s list of past visits by foreign leaders.
Al-Shallah, which seized power from President Bashar al-Assad in December, is seeking to rebuild Syria’s relations with world powers that shunned Damascus during the regime.
He met with President Trump in Saudi Arabia in May, the first meeting between the two leaders in 25 years.
The meeting, which coincided with a meeting between President Trump and Gulf Cooperation Council leaders, was seen as a major turn of events for Syria, which is still adjusting to life after more than 50 years of rule by the Assad family.
Al-Shallah also spoke at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.
Barrack, the U.S. special envoy to Syria, told reporters on the sidelines of the Manama talks in Bahrain that the U.S. aims to get Damascus to join the coalition the U.S. has led to fight ISIL, an insurgent group that at its peak controlled about a third of Syria and Iraq from 2014 to 2017.
“We’re trying to make everyone a partner in this alliance. This is a huge deal for them,” Barrack said.
Al-Sharaa once led an al-Qaeda faction in Syria, but a decade ago his anti-Assad rebels broke away from the network founded by Osama bin Laden and later clashed with ISIL.
Al-Sharah was previously held with a $10 million bounty in the United States.
Al-Shara, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, joined fighters fighting U.S. forces in Iraq before joining the Syrian war. He was also imprisoned there by the US military for several years.
The US-led coalition and local partners drove ISIL from its last stronghold in Syria in 2019.
Al-Shalah’s visit to Washington comes as President Trump calls on Middle East allies to seize the opportunity to build lasting peace in the volatile region, after Israel and Hamas began implementing a cease-fire and prisoner of war agreement earlier this month. The agreement aims to bring a permanent end to Israel’s brutal two-year war in Gaza.
Although a fragile ceasefire and prisoner release agreement remain in place, the situation remains unstable.
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza earlier this week killed 104 people, including dozens of women and children, according to Gaza health authorities. The attack was the deadliest since the ceasefire began on October 10, and the most serious challenge to what has been a tenuous ceasefire.
Meanwhile, Syria and Israel are holding talks to reach an agreement, with the Damascus government hoping to ensure Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli forces that have invaded southern Syria.
Barrack earlier told the Manama Dialogue that Syria and Israel continue de-escalation talks, mediated by the United States.
He told reporters that Syria and Israel were close to a deal, but declined to say exactly when a deal would be reached.
Israel and Syria have been rivals in the Middle East for decades.
Despite the overthrow of President al-Assad last December, territorial disputes and deep-seated political mistrust between the two countries remain.
