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Trump to Host Syria's al-Sharaa 11/10 06:14
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump is hosting Syrian President Ahmad
al-Sharaa at the White House on Monday, welcoming the once-pariah state into a
U.S-led global coalition to fight the Islamic State group.
It's the first visit to the White House by a Syrian head of state since the
Middle Eastern country gained independence from France in 1946 and comes after
the U.S. lifted sanctions imposed on Syria during the decades the country was
ruled by the Assad family. Al-Sharaa led the rebel forces that toppled former
Syrian President Bashar Assad last December and was named the country's interim
leader in January.
Trump and al-Sharaa -- who once had ties to al-Qaida and had a $10 million
U.S. bounty on his head -- first met in May in Saudi Arabia. At the time, the
U.S. president described al-Sharaa as a "young, attractive guy. Tough guy.
Strong past, very strong past. Fighter." It was the first official encounter
between the U.S. and Syria since 2000, when former President Bill Clinton met
with Hafez Assad, the father of Bashar Assad.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday's visit is "part of
the president's efforts in diplomacy to meet with anyone around the world in
the pursuit of peace."
Trump has recently said al-Sharaa is "doing a very good job so far" and that
a "lot of progress has been made with Syria" since the U.S. eased sanctions.
One official with knowledge of the administration's plans said Syria's entry
into the global coalition fighting the Islamic State group will allow it to
work more closely with U.S. forces, although the new Syrian military and the
Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the country's northeast had already
been fighting the group.
Before al-Sharaa's arrival in the U.S., the United Nations Security Council
voted to lift sanctions on the Syrian president and other government officials
in a move that Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said was a strong
sign that Syria is in a new era since the fall of Assad.
Al-Sharaa comes into the meeting with his own priorities. He wants a
permanent repeal of sanctions that punished Syria for widespread allegations of
human rights abuses by Assad's government and security forces. While the Caesar
Act sanctions are currently waived by Trump, a permanent repeal would require
Congress to act.
One option is a proposal from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, that would end the sanctions without any
conditions. The other was drafted by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a hawkish
Trump ally who wants to set conditions for a sanctions repeal that would be
reviewed every six months.
But advocates argue that any repeal with conditions would prevent companies
from investing in Syria because they would fear potentially being sanctioned.
Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, likened
it to a "hanging shadow that paralyzes any initiatives for our country."
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