Today's Edition
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the United States on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country's state news agency reported.
Sharaa, whose forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.
It's the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country's independence in 1946, according to analysts.
The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president's regional tour in May.
US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said earlier this month that Sharaa would "hopefully" sign an agreement to join the international US-led alliance against the Islamic State (IS) group.
The State Department's decision Friday to remove Sharaa from the blacklist was widely expected. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Sharaa's government had been meeting US demands, including on working to find missing Americans, and on eliminating any remaining chemical weapons.
"These actions are being taken in recognition of the progress demonstrated by the Syrian leadership after the departure of Bashar al-Assad and more than 50 years of repression under the Assad regime," Pigott said.
The spokesman added that the US delisting would promote "regional security and stability as well as an inclusive, Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process."
The Syrian interior ministry announced on Saturday that it had carried out 61 raids and made 71 arrests in a "proactive campaign to neutralise the threat" of IS, according to the official SANA news agency.
After his arrival in the United States, Sharaa shared a video on social media of him playing basketball with CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper and Kevin Lambert, the head of the international anti-IS operation in Iraq, alongside the caption "work hard, play harder".
Sharaa's Washington trip comes after his landmark visit to the United Nations in September -- his first time on US soil -- where he became the first Syrian president in decades to address the UN General Assembly in New York.
On Thursday, Washington led a vote by the Security Council to remove UN sanctions against him.
Sharaa is expected to seek funds for Syria, which faces significant challenges in rebuilding after 13 years of brutal civil war. In October, the World Bank put a "conservative best estimate" of the cost of rebuilding Syria at $216 billion.
