The interim Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, arrived in the United States for a historic visit. The Syrian state news agency reported this after the U.S. removed the former jihadist from its terrorist list on Friday. Al-Sharaa will be received by U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday—his trip marks the first official visit by a Syrian head of state to the United States in nearly 80 years. Both sides have concrete expectations for the meeting: according to the U.S. envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, al-Sharaa will sign an agreement for Syria’s accession to the U.S.-led international coalition to fight the jihadist militia Islamic State (IS) during his visit. The Syrian Interior Ministry said Saturday it had arrested 71 suspects in 61 raids as part of a “proactive campaign” against “the ISIS threat,” according to the Syrian state news agency SANA. Operations reportedly took place in Aleppo, Idlib, and Damascus, among other locations.
Plans for a U.S. military base
According to diplomats, the United States also plans to build a military base near the Syrian capital, Damascus. This base is expected to serve for “humanitarian aid coordination” and “monitoring developments between Syria and Israel,” they said. Al-Sharaa, on the other hand, is likely hoping for financial commitments to rebuild his country, which has been devastated by 13 years of civil war, in addition to the prestige gained from becoming the first Syrian head of state ever received at the White House in modern Syrian history. The World Bank estimated the reconstruction cost at at least 216 billion U.S. dollars (nearly 187 billion euros) in a conservative estimate from October. Al-Sharaa’s trip to Washington is already his second visit to the United States as Syria’s interim head of state. In September, he became the first Syrian president to address the General Debate of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. The U.N. Security Council lifted sanctions against al-Sharaa on Thursday, meaning he no longer requires special authorization to travel abroad.
Removed from the terrorist list on Friday
On Friday, al-Sharaa was officially removed from the U.S. terrorist list. The U.S. government thus recognizes the progress Syria has made since the overthrow of ruler Bashar al-Assad last December, said U.S. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott. He emphasized that al-Sharaa’s government has met Washington’s demands to trace missing U.S. citizens in Syria and to destroy any remaining chemical weapons stockpiles from the Assad era. Removing the interim president from the terrorist list would also help ensure security and stability in the region, Pigott added. In addition, the United States is supporting Syria’s political unification process.
Al-Sharaa’s Islamist militia HTS and allied groups overthrew Syrian ruler Assad in December 2024. HTS was once an al-Qaeda affiliate but broke away from the terrorist network years ago. Since taking office as interim president, al-Sharaa has sought to project a more moderate image. However, his government is suspected of failing to adequately protect minorities in Syria—such as the Alawites, Christians, Druze, and Kurds. In March, more than 1,700 people were killed in massacres in western Syrian regions inhabited mainly by Alawites.
In a recent outbreak of violence in Sweida, more than 1,000 people were killed, most of them Druze. Furthermore, the selection process for members of the first parliament after Assad’s fall—which concluded in early October—was criticized as undemocratic, as regions dominated by ethnic minorities were reportedly excluded from participation.
