Al-Shara's Visit to Washington - The First Visit by a Syrian President

SadaNews - President of Syria Ahmad al-Shara arrived in the United States on Saturday, marking a historical visit as it is the first by a Syrian president to the White House.

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that al-Shara is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House.

Al-Shara made his first visit to the United States to participate in the proceedings of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he delivered a speech, but his visit to Washington is the first for a Syrian president.

It is expected that Damascus will sign an agreement during this visit to join the international coalition against the Islamic State led by Washington, as announced by the U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Braak.

At the same time, the United States intends to establish a military base near Damascus, according to reports from Reuters and AFP, but Damascus denied this, as reported by SANA from a source in the Syrian Foreign Ministry.

Prior to this visit, the United States officially removed al-Shara's name from the sanctions list on Friday, just days before his trip to Washington and following the lifting of sanctions against him by the United Nations Security Council.

Just a year ago, al-Shara, known then as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, was leading Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which emerged from the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda. The United Nations imposed sanctions on him in 2013 due to his leadership of this organization.

Trump and al-Shara are also expected to discuss direct negotiations between the Syrian authorities and Israel.

In May, Trump urged the Syrian president to join the Abraham Accords, a process that saw several Arab countries normalize their relations with Israel in 2020.

Al-Shara announced in September that the negotiations with Israel aim to reach a security agreement whereby Israel would withdraw from areas in southern Syria that it advanced into following the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad's regime and cease its airstrikes.

Since December, Syria has been subjected to numerous Israeli airstrikes and incursions in the southern part of the country, without having retaliated.