Syrian President Sharaa will visit Washington for the first time. The US hopes Syria will join the anti-ISIS coalition and finalize a security deal with Israel to halt airstrikes and withdraw troops.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is expected to visit Washington “around Nov. 10,” US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack confirmed Saturday, according to the Reuters news agency. The visit would mark a first time a Syrian head of state has officially traveled to the US capital. Speaking at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, Barrack said the US hopes Syria will “hopefully” join the American-led coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization. “We are trying to get everybody to be a partner in this alliance, which is huge for them,” he told reporters.
A Syrian source familiar with the matter said the visit is expected within the next two weeks. Sharaa previously addressed the UN General Assembly in New York in September, where he also met President Donald Trump. Since taking power from Bashar Al-Assad last December, al-Sharaa has embarked on a series of foreign visits aimed at restoring Syria’s ties with global powers that distanced themselves during Assad’s rule.
Al-Sharaa, who once led Syria’s Al-Qaeda offshoot, broke away from the network a decade ago and later clashed with ISIS forces. The US-led coalition drove Islamic State from its final Syrian stronghold in 2019, but the group has attempted to regroup following Assad’s fall. (Ed note: Does anyone else believe this? This man is Al-Qaed and more than a friend to ISIS. He will say and do anything now to get the IDF off his back so he can operate as he wants in Syria.) (Read More)
