President Ahmed al-Shara of Syria will visit Washington this month for the first time since he came to power, another step in the transformation of the former rebel leader once wanted by the United States as a terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head.
In September, Mr. al-Shara visited New York and became the first Syrian president to address the United Nations General Assembly in 58 years.
The U.S. special envoy for Syria, Thomas J. Barrack Jr., said on Saturday that Mr. al-Shara will be in Washington to “hopefully” sign an agreement to join 88 other countries in the global coalition to defeat the Islamic State. He was speaking at the Manama Dialogue, an annual security conference in the Gulf nation of Bahrain.
Speaking at the same conference, Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani of Syria confirmed on Sunday that Mr. al-Shara would visit the U.S. capital in November and said the reconstruction of Syria would be among the topics to be discussed, according to Syrian state media.
White House officials did not immediately respond on Sunday when asked whether Mr. al-Shara will meet President Trump during the visit.
Mr. al-Shara led the rebel offensive almost a year ago that ended more than five decades of dictatorship under the Assad family. A former Islamist rebel once linked to Al Qaeda, Mr. al-Shara has since redefined himself as a statesman and expanded Syria’s foreign relations in a bid to help his country rebuild after a brutal and destructive civil war that lasted nearly 14 years.
In December, the U.S. government dropped the $10 million bounty on Mr. al-Shara’s head. In July, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the revocation of the terrorist designation for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel group that Mr. al-Shara led before he overthrew President Bashar al-Assad.
Mr. al-Shara founded the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda before breaking ties with the terrorist group in 2016.
Now he and his government appear set to join the U.S. and dozens of other countries in fighting another terrorist group.
Though the Islamic State lost its last territorial foothold in Syria in 2019, it continues to have a presence in the country, especially in the vast desert region in the center, and carry out occasional attacks.
As Syria goes through a rocky political and security transition after the war, there are fears that the terrorist group could re-emerge and try to free thousands of its former fighters who are held in Syrian prisons guarded by U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces.
Ismaeel Naar contributed reporting.
Raja Abdulrahim reports on the Middle East and is based in Jerusalem.
The post Syria’s President to Visit Washington for First Time Since Taking Power appeared first on New York Times.
