Ahmed al-Sharaa becomes the first Syrian president to visit the White House on Monday, capping an extraordinary turnaround for the former al Qaeda operative who is now leading efforts to end his country’s international isolation. Sharaa will push for the permanent lifting of sanctions on Syria when he meets with US President Donald Trump, who hopes in return to bring Damascus into the Abraham Accords normalising ties between Israel and several Arab states.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is set to hold talks with his US counterpart at the White House on Monday, less than a year after he toppled his country’s longtime autocrat and ended 50 years of Assad family rule. The historic visit – the first by a Syrian president since independence in 1946 – caps a stunning 12 months for the rebel-turned-leader, who served five years in a US jail in Iraq before going on to lead an al Qaeda offshoot in Syria with a $10 million US bounty on his head. 

Sharaa's visit comes just days after he was taken off Washington’s global terrorism blacklist and after the UN Security Council voted to remove sanctions targeting him. He is set to push for US support in rebuilding Syria and for an end to all remaining sanctions on its war-ravaged economy, a move that would require the approval of both Trump and Congress. 

Analysts say Sharaa may sign an agreement to join the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria following his talks with Trump, as he seeks to bolster security in a country awash with weapons and rife with sectarian tensions. The two leaders are also expected to tackle the thorny subjects of relations with Israel and the stand-off in the occupied Golan Heights, where Israeli forces moved deeper into Syrian territory following the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad.