Syria’s President Meets Trump at White House for First Time

President Ahmed al-Shara of Syria is set to meet with President Trump in Washington on Monday, his first visit to the U.S. capital since coming to power and the first by any Syrian head of state to the White House.

The Syrian leader is expected to sign an agreement to join 88 other countries in the global coalition to defeat the Islamic State, which remains active in Syria.

Mr. al-Shara’s meeting in Washington is the latest turn in the transformation of the Islamist former rebel leader, who was once designated as a terrorist by the United States with a $10 million bounty on his head.

The rebel coalition he led toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad in December, ending the Assad family’s more than 50-year brutal dictatorship in Syria. Mr. al-Shara has since redefined himself as a statesman while seeking to return Syria to the international fold and rebuild the country as it emerges from a long and devastating civil war.

A World Bank report estimated the cost of Syria’s reconstruction at about $216 billion.

Since taking power, Mr. al-Shara has toured the wealthy Gulf states to drum up international investment. In September, he went to New York and became the first Syrian president to address the U.N. General Assembly in nearly 60 years.

The next month, he visited the Kremlin and met President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who once backed Mr. al-Assad in his government’s fight against Mr. al-Shara’s rebels. They discussed developing Syria’s oil fields and other projects in the energy, transport and tourism sectors.

Before traveling to Washington, Mr. al-Shara joined world leaders in Brazil at an annual U.N. climate summit and invited investments in renewable energy as part of his government’s plans for reconstruction.

Mr. al-Shara has been embraced by Mr. Trump.

In December, the U.S. government dropped the $10 million bounty, and in July, it revoked the terrorist designation for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel group that Mr. al-Shara once led.

Mr. Trump has also pledged that Washington would lift all sanctions on Syria to support its efforts to rebuild. So far, Mr. Trump has granted Syria widespread exemptions on sanctions and pushed for Congress to repeal a 2019 law, the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, which imposed the toughest sanctions on Syria.

There remains some resistance to doing so in light of concerns about Syria’s sometimes rocky transition since the Assad regime collapsed.

Over the past year, there have been a series of deadly outbursts of sectarian violence, some involving armed groups that support Mr. al-Shara’s government.

Mr. al-Shara has also come under criticism for concentrating power in his own hands and those of a close circle of loyalists.

Before his visit to Washington, the U.N. Security Council voted on Thursday to remove Mr. al-Shara from a terrorism sanctions list, a move pushed by the United States. That step will allow him to travel more freely, without having to seek waivers for some trips.

By signing onto the coalition fighting the Islamic State, Mr. al-Shara is further bolstering his relationship with the Trump administration, analysts say.

While the Islamic State lost its territorial foothold in Syria in 2019, it continues to have a presence in the country, and there are fears that it could re-emerge if Mr. al-Shara fails to stabilize and unite the country and consolidate his own security forces.