Syria’s de facto president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda leader, is set to visit the White House within the next week as the Trump administration is pushing for Congress to fully lift the Caesar Act sanctions that were imposed on Syria in 2020.
The sanctions were specifically designed to prevent Syria’s reconstruction, and they had a devastating impact on the civilian population. The ultimate goal was for regime change in Syria, which happened in December 2024, when Sharaa’s group of jihadists, known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, marched into Damascus and former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia.
Since then, the US, especially the Trump administration, has embraced Sharaa despite his al-Qaeda past and the massacres of thousands of Alawite and Druze civilians committed by government forces or government-linked fighters. Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, met with President Trump in Saudi Arabia in May and on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York City in September.
Sharaa’s third meeting with Trump will mark the first time a Syrian president visits the White House. A Trump administration official said the meeting is set to take place on November 10 and that Sharaa’s government is expected to sign an agreement to join the US-led anti-ISIS coalition. Sharaa was once an ally of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder of ISIS.
Previous reports have said that the Trump administration may sign an agreement with the new Syrian government to formalize its military presence in Syria. The US has been closing bases in northeast Syria but is expected to maintain its presence at the al-Tanf Garrison in the south, which is situated where the borders of Syria, Iraq, and Jordan converge.
