Trump to host Syria’s al-Sharaa for talks at White House, envoy says

According to Washington’s envoy to Damascus, Donald Trump will meet with Syria’s interim leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, for talks on November 10 for what would be the first time a Syrian president has traveled to the US capital.

US envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, announced to the Axios newspaper on Saturday that al-Sharaa is scheduled to sign a deal to join an international US-led coalition against the ISIL (ISIS) group during his visit.

A Syrian source with knowledge of the situation, according to the Reuters news agency, claimed the trip was scheduled to take place within the next two weeks.

No previous Syrian president has made an official visit to Washington, according to the US State Department’s historical list of foreign leaders.

Al-Sharaa, who seized Bashar al-Assad’s rule in December, has been attempting to re-establish relations with international powers that had previously ruled Damascus.

In their first meeting in 25 years, he and Trump met in Saudi Arabia in May.

A Syria that is still adapting to life after more than 50 years of the Assad family’s rule was the subject of the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of Trump’s get-together with the Gulf Cooperation Council leaders.

Al-Sharaa also addressed the September UN General Assembly in New York.

On the sidelines of the Bahraini Manama Dialogue, Barrack, the US envoy to Syria, stated to reporters that the US had been trying to persuade Damascus to join the coalition it had led since 2014 to combat ISIL, an armed group that once held up about a third of Syria and Iraq between 2014 and 2017.

“We are trying to get everyone to be a partner in this alliance, which is very important for them,” Barrack said.

Al-Sharaa once oversaw al-Qaeda in Syria, but Osama bin Laden’s network was abandoned by his anti-Assad rebel group ten years ago, and he later clashed with ISIL.

Al-Sharaa once had a head-mounted $10 million US reward.

Before joining fighters fighting US forces in Iraq, al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, fought alongside him in the Syrian conflict. He was even held there for a number of years by US troops.

ISIL was driven out of its most recent stronghold in Syria in 2019 by the US-led coalition and its regional partners.

After Israel and Hamas began implementing a ceasefire and captives’ agreement earlier this month, Trump is urging Middle East allies to take advantage of the situation to create a lasting peace in the region. The two-year Israeli occupation of Gaza will be ended with a permanent resolution in that agreement.

The situation is still precarious despite the fragile ceasefire and captivity release agreement.

104 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza earlier this week, according to the enclave’s health authorities. The strikes, the deadliest since the ceasefire’s initiation on October 10, presented the most significant challenge to the fragile truce to date.

In the meantime, Syria and Israel are negotiating a resolution that Damascus hopes will force Israel to stop its airstrikes and withdraw its troops from southern Syria.

Barrack previously stated to the Manama Dialogue that the US has been mediating de-escalation talks between Syria and Israel.

He claimed that an agreement between Syria and Israel was on the verge of completion, but he would not specify a date.

Syria and Israel have faced off in the Middle East for decades.