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Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa is expected to visit Washington, D.C., and meet with President Donald Trump next week, the first-ever official visit by a Syrian president to the U.S. capital.
A White House official confirmed to Fox News Digital that the meeting was planned for Nov. 10. News of the meeting was first reported by Axios.
Trump and al-Sharaa met for the first time in May on the sidelines of the president’s trip to Saudi Arabia.
“Young, attractive guy, tough guy,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after meeting al-Sharaa, who is a former Al-Qaeda leader. “Strong past, very strong past — fighter. He’s got a real shot at holding it together.”
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Al-Sharaa, formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, led the rebel offensive in December that toppled former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
His group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, was designated by the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in June that the Trump administration would remove the label amid the president’s efforts to reset U.S.-Syria ties.
“This FTO revocation is an important step in fulfilling President Trump’s vision of a stable, unified, and peaceful Syria,” Rubio said in a statement.
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Trump received a standing ovation in Riyadh after announcing his administration would order the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to “give them a chance at greatness.”
“Oh, what I do for the crown prince,” he joked, referring to Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Mohammed bin-Salman, who pushed Trump to meet with Syria’s new leader.
Efforts to lift the Caesar sanctions, the strongest sanctions on Syria, have faced procedural delays in Congress.
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A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Reuters on Friday that the Trump administration supports repealing the Caesar sanctions through the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which is under discussion by U.S. lawmakers.
The bill, which was named after a Syrian Army defector who smuggled thousands of images documenting torture and executions in Bashar al-Assad’s prisons, targeted entities and individuals who provided support to Assad’s regime.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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