WASHINGTON — Syria President Ahmed al-Sharaa met Monday with President Trump in the first-ever White House visit for a Damascus head of state — days after the US and United Nations removed sanctions on the onetime al Qaeda terrorist who formerly had a $10 million bounty on his head.
Al-Sharaa, 43, walked down Pennsylvania Avenue to greet dozens of supporters following the roughly 90-minute Oval Office meeting, which was closed to the press. The group held signs calling for Congress to permanently end sanctions that the Trump administration temporarily waived earlier this year.
The White House visit was the latest step in al-Sharaa’s dramatic image revamp from turban-wearing jihadist to US-backed head of state since his rebels defeated Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a surprise offensive last December.
Al-Sharaa was escorted through the streets of Washington by a large law enforcement motorcade and entered the West Wing through a side door after meetings with Republicans in Congress.
Al-Sharaa told Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, Sunday night that he wanted to “have a noble pursuit for his people and his country and to be a great ally to the United States of America,” the congressman said.
On Saturday, a viral video circulated on X showing al-Sharaa playing basketball with US military leaders during their recent trip to the Syrian capital, including Central Command (CENTCOM) leader Adm. Brad Cooper and anti-ISIS coalition leader Brig. Gen. Kevin Lambert.
Al-Sharaa fought US troops as a member of al Qaeda in Iraq and then founded its Nusra Front affiliate in Syria in 2012.
He was detained by American troops in 2006 for planting explosives along a road near Mosul in northern Iraq and then imprisoned for five years.
His Syrian group, which quickly emerged as one of the most ruthless forces fighting to topple Assad, was a target of US airstrikes that took out some of his deputies — though to a lesser degree than the campaign to cripple rivals ISIS, led by al-Sharaa’s former mentor Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The Nusra Front’s alleged atrocities include killing a Catholic priest in northwestern Syria in 2013 and kidnapping a group of Greek Orthodox nuns the following year along the Lebanese border.
Al-Sharaa broke with al Qaeda’s flagging global leadership in 2016 and in recent years sought to rebrand himself as a defender of Syria’s religious minorities, including Christians and Alawites — both of whom comprise more than 10% of the population — and Druze, who comprise about 3%.
Trump has repeatedly credited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with being the real power behind al-Sharaa’s victory in Syria’s long-running civil war.
Trump previously met with al-Sharaa in May during a trip to Saudi Arabia — telling the press after that encounter that he was a “young, attractive guy.”
“Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter,” Trump said at the time. “He’s got a real shot at holding it together. I spoke with President Erdogan, who is very friendly with him. He feels he’s got a shot of doing a good job. It’s a torn-up country.”
