A seemingly unlikely visitor to the White House

Al-Sharaa, first Syrian president to do so since 1946, once had ties to Al Qaeda.

- By Appy SEWELL

AHMAD AL-SHARAA speaks during the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 24.

(HEATHER KHALIFA Associated Press)

Two decades ago, Ahmad al-Sharaa was held in a U.S.-run detention center in Iraq after joining Al Qaeda militants fighting against American forces there.

Few would have predicted that he would go on to become the first Syrian president to visit Washington since the country’s independence in 1946.

Since rebel forces he led ousted former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December last year, Al-Sharaa — who cut ties with Al Qaeda years earlier — has gone on a largely successful charm offensive to establish new ties with countries that had shunned Assad’s government after its brutal crackdown on protesters in 2011 spiraled into a 14-year civil war.

Al-Sharaa met with President Trump in Saudi Arabia in May, where Trump announced that he would lift decades of sanctions.

The two men will meet again Monday in Washington, where Syria is widely expected to officially join the U.S.-led coalition against the militant group Islamic State. Al-Sharaa arrived in the U.S. on Saturday ahead of the meeting, according to Syrian state media.

Apart from that agreement, Al-Sharaa will use the visit to push for a full removal of the remaining sanctions on his country.

Al-Sharaa’s media advisor, Ahmad Zeidan, told the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV that the “foremost” issue on the president’s agenda in Washington is to call for a repeal of the Caesar Act, which imposed sweeping sanctions over human rights abuses by Assad’s government and security forces.

The Caesar sanctions are currently waived by presidential order, but a permanent repeal would require a congressional vote.

Days ahead of Al Sharaa’s visit, Trump told reporters that he had moved to lift sanctions from Syria “to give them a fighting shot, and I think [Al-Sharaa’s] doing a very good job so far.”