Al-Sharaa to become the first Syrian president to visit the White House after an unlikely rise

EIRUT AP Two decades ago Ahmad al-Sharaa was held in a U S -run detention center in Iraq after joining al-Qaida militants fighting against American forces there Sparse would have predicted that he would go on to become the first Syrian president to visit Washington since the country s independence in Since rebel forces he led ousted former Syrian President Bashar Assad last December al-Sharaa who cut ties with al-Qaida years earlier has gone on a largely fruitful charm offensive to establish new ties with countries that had shunned Assad s executive after its brutal crackdown on protesters in spiraled into a -year civil war Al-Sharaa met with U S President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia in May where Trump broadcasted that he would lift decades of sanctions The two men will meet again on Monday in Washington where Syria is widely expected to officially join the U S -led coalition against the Islamic State group 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 repeal of the Caesar Act which imposed sweeping sanctions over human rights abuses by Assad s establishment and prevention forces The Caesar sanctions are presently waived by presidential order but a permanent repeal will require a congressional vote Syria s Ministry of Information revealed in a report Sunday that al-Sharaa will emphasize the importance of lifting economic sanctions particularly the Caesar Act to allow for Syria s economic recovery and expenditure development and will also reaffirm Syria s commitment to continuing the fight against terrorism and promoting regional prevention A push to lift the last sanctions Days ahead of al-Sharaa s visit Trump stated 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 It s a tough neighborhood and he s a tough guy but I got along with him very well and a lot of progress has been made with Syria he announced On Thursday the U N Assurance Council voted to lift sanctions from al-Sharaa and his interior minister and the U S then removed them from its specially designated global terrorist list Meanwhile senators have advanced a repeal of the Caesar Act through an annual defense authorization bill but the final rule is being negotiated with the House where particular top Republicans want to put conditions on it Rep Brian Mast the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee has expressed reservations about a full repeal Sen Lindsey Graham a South Carolina Republican who is close to Trump has also pushed for conditions on the repeal including protection and representation for religious and ethnic minorities maintaining peaceful relations with other states in the region including the State of Israel and removing foreign fighters from regime and measure institutions Skeptics of al-Sharaa point to eruptions of sectarian violence over the past year during which pro-government Sunni gunmen killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite and Druze religious minorities Al-Sharaa has promised to hold perpetrators accountable but minority communities remain wary The advocacy group Save the Persecuted Christians sent a letter signed by U S religious leaders calling on Trump to address the massacre of minorities in Syria and to push al-Sharaa to open a humanitarian corridor from the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights to the Druze enclave of Sweida in southern Syria Since Assad s fall Israel has seized a formerly U N -patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria and pushed for a demilitarized zone south of Damascus The two countries which do not have diplomatic relations have been negotiating a anticipated protection agreement Meanwhile the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen Jeanne Shaheen has led the effort for a full Caesar repeal Shaheen declared that we have a real opportunity in the Middle East right now that we haven t had in my lifetime Advocates say it is unfair to keep sanctions that were specifically imposed on Assad s regime as leverage over the new officials and that the threat of a Caesar snapback would prevent international companies from investing in rebuilding the war-battered country Mouaz Moustafa executive director of the Syrian Urgency Task Force which lobbied for the imposition of the Caesar sanctions but is now trying to get them removed mentioned the U S establishment can impose new targeted sanctions if warranted But to use Caesar for that is like using a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel you re going to kill the person you re operating on Moustafa commented A strengthened military alliance U S envoy Tom Barrack declared last week that Syria will hopefully soon join the coalition of specific countries working to prevent a resurgence of IS A Trump administration official mentioned Al-Sharaa is expected to sign an agreement to join the coalition during his visit White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to comment when appealed about the possibility Another U S official with knowledge of the situation explained that while Syrian forces had already been fighting IS their formal entry into the coalition will be a milestone and will enable U S forces to work more closely with the Syrians Both representatives were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity Syrian administrators declined to comment on the discussions about joining the coalition While the Islamic State group lost hold of all of the territory it once held in Syria and Iraq years ago cells of the extremist group have continued to carry out attacks in both countries and abroad Lt Cmdr Emily Pumphrey a spokesperson for U S Central Command stated there have been IS attacks in Syria and in Iraq so far this year down from in Syria and in Iraq in Before Assad s fall al-Sharaa then known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham an Islamic insurgent group controlling much of northwestern Syria It was formerly an offshoot of al-Qaida but later split from it HTS and IS were rivals and al-Sharaa cracked down on Islamic State cells in the area he controlled The main U S partner in the fight against IS at the time was the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the country s northeast Since al-Sharaa took power the U S military has expanded its cooperation with Damascus and Washington has pushed for a deal to merge the SDF and the new Syrian army While Damascus and the SDF have agreed in principle to do so implementation has stalled amid tensions that have sometimes escalated into clashes between the two sides