Trump hosts Syria's Sharaa at White House; US renews temporary waiver of tough sanctions
by Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick reuters · KSL.comKEY TAKEAWAYS
- President Donald Trump met Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the White House on Monday.
- The U.S. extended a 180-day waiver on Caesar sanctions against Syria.
- Sharaa seeks full sanctions removal to aid Syria's reconstruction efforts.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump held low-key White House talks on Monday with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al Qaeda commander who, until recently, was on Washington's terrorist blacklist and is now trying to end Syria's decades of international isolation.
Sharaa's visit capped a stunning year for the rebel-turned-ruler who toppled longtime autocratic leader Bashar al-Assad and has since traveled the world trying to depict himself as a moderate leader who wants to unify and rebuild his war-ravaged country.
One of Sharaa's chief aims in Washington was to push for full removal of the toughest U.S. sanctions. While he met with Trump behind closed doors, the U.S. Treasury Department announced a 180-day extension of its suspension of enforcement of the so-called Caesar sanctions, but only Congress can lift them entirely.
Trump met with Sharaa in the first-ever visit by a Syrian president to Washington, six months after their first meeting in Saudi Arabia, where the U.S. leader announced plans to lift sanctions, and just days after the U.S. said he was no longer a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist."
In an unusually muted welcome, Sharaa arrived without the fanfare usually given to visiting foreign dignitaries. He entered through a side door, where reporters only got a glimpse instead of through the West Wing main door, where cameras often capture Trump greeting VIPs. A pool of reporters that often goes into the Oval Office for such talks was not allowed in.
Shortly afterward, the Treasury Department announced a new order to replace its May 23 waiver on enforcement of the 2019 Caesar Act, which imposed sweeping sanctions over human rights abuses under Assad. The move, essentially extending the waiver by another 180 days, indicated "our commitment to continued sanctions relief for Syria," Treasury said in a statement.
Sharaa, 43, took power last year after his Islamist fighters launched a lightning offensive from their enclave in Syria's northwest and overthrew longtime Syrian President Assad just days later on Dec. 8.
Syria's regional realignment has since moved at a dizzying pace, away from Assad's key allies Iran and Russia and toward Turkey, the Gulf — and Washington.
But even though Trump has already removed many sanctions on Syria, the Caesar sanctions remain a major stumbling block to the country's reconstruction. A senior administration official said the administration would fully support their repeal by Congress.
Security was also expected to be a top focus of Sharaa's meeting with Trump, who, in a major U.S. policy shift, has sought to help Syria's fragile transition.
The U.S. is brokering talks on a possible security pact between Syria and Israel, which remains wary of Sharaa's former militant ties. Reuters reported last week that the U.S. is planning to establish a military presence at a Damascus airbase.
Syria was also set to formally join a U.S.-led coalition to fight Islamic State, the administration official said, and an announcement from the Syrian government was expected soon.
Assassination plots
Just hours before the landmark talks, word emerged of two separate Islamic State plots to assassinate Sharaa that had been foiled over the last few months, according to a senior Syrian security official and a senior Middle Eastern official.
Over the weekend, the Syrian interior ministry launched a nationwide campaign targeting Islamic State cells across the country, arresting more than 70 suspects, government media said.
The White House offered no immediate explanation for Sharaa's muted arrival. Most heads of state are driven up the driveway festooned with their national flags on the north side of the presidential compound. But on Monday, there was none of that.
Far-right activist Laura Loomer, a self-proclaimed "Islamophobe" who wields influence in Trump's MAGA movement, posted on X that Sharaa was the "ISIS 'President' of Syria."
"What ... are we doing?" she wrote of his White House visit.
But as Sharaa left the compound, he exited his motorcade just in front of the White House and briefly greeted a cheering crowd of supporters, some waving Syrian flags.
Days before the meeting, Trump told reporters that "a lot of progress has been made" on Syria and that Sharaa was "doing a very good job."
Sharaa was expected to strongly advocate for a repeal of the Caesar Act, which will help spur global investment in a country ravaged by 14 years of war and which the World Bank estimates will take more than $200 billion to rebuild.
Several influential members of Congress have called for the lifting of the 2019 Caesar sanctions, passed in response to human rights abuses under Assad. A few of Trump's fellow Republicans want the sanctions to stay in place, but that could change if Trump applies pressure.
Syria's social fabric has been more recently tested. New bouts of sectarian violence left more than 2,500 dead since Assad's fall, deepening civil war wounds and putting into question the new rulers' ability to govern for all Syrians.
Trump's focus on Syria comes as his administration seeks to keep intact a U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas militants and push forward on his 20-point plan for an end to the two-year-old war in the Palestinian enclave. Some of the toughest issues remain unresolved.
Dramatic shifts
Sharaa's own turnaround is no less impressive than his country's. He joined al Qaeda in Iraq around the time of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and spent years in a U.S. prison there, before returning to Syria to join the insurgency against Assad.
In 2013, the U.S. designated Sharaa, then known as Abu Mohammad al-Golani, as a terrorist for his ties to al Qaeda. He broke ties with the group in 2016 and consolidated his influence in Syria's northwest.
The U.S. removed a $10 million bounty on Sharaa's head in December, and just last week, the United Nations Security Council lifted terror-related sanctions designations on him and his Interior Minister Anas Khattab.
Following the U.N. move, Britain and the U.S. lifted sanctions on the pair. In Washington, that included removing "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" designations on them.
Contributing: Timour Azhari and Patricia Zengerle
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.