Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s White House meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday caps a stunning year for the rebel-turned-ruler who toppled a longtime autocratic leader and has since toured the world as he seeks to end Syria’s international isolation, Reuters reports.
Trump is set to welcome Sharaa in the first-ever visit by a Syrian president to the White House, six months after the pair first met in Saudi Arabia and just days after Washington said the former al Qaeda member was no longer a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.”
Sharaa, 42, took power last year after his Islamist fighters launched a lightning offensive from their enclave in Syria’s northwest and overthrew longtime Syrian President Bashar al-Assad just days later on December 8.
