Khaberni - Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa arrived in the United States, on Saturday, in a historic visit being the first for a Syrian president to the White House.
The Syrian news agency (SANA) reported that Al-Sharaa is scheduled to meet with US President Donald Trump at the White House.
Al-Sharaa conducted his first visit to the United States to participate in the proceedings of the United Nations General Assembly in New York where he gave a speech; however, his visit to Washington is the first for a Syrian president.
It is expected that during this visit, Damascus will sign an agreement to join the international coalition against ISIS, led by Washington, as announced by the US special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack.
At the same time, the United States plans to establish a military base near Damascus, according to what was reported by Reuters and the French agency; however, Damascus denied this, according to what SANA reported quoting a responsible source from the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Before this visit, on Friday, the United States officially lifted sanctions on Al-Sharaa just days before his visit to Washington and a day after the United Nations Security Council also lifted sanctions on him.
Just one year ago, Al-Sharaa, then known as Abu Mohammad Al-Julani, was the leader of Tahrir Al-Sham, derived from the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. The United Nations imposed sanctions on him in 2013 as a leader of this organization.
It is also expected that Trump and Al-Sharaa will discuss direct negotiations between the Syrian authorities and Israel.
In May, Trump had urged the Syrian president to join the Abraham Accords, a process that saw several Arab countries normalize their relations with Israel in 2020.
In September, Al-Sharaa announced that negotiations with Israel aim to reach a security agreement under which Israel would withdraw from areas in southern Syria, which it had advanced into after the fall of the regime of the ousted president Bashar al-Assad, and would stop its raids.
Since December, Syria has faced several Israeli raids and incursions in the south of the country, without responding to them.
