DAMASCUS, Syria: Syria’s president is set to discuss key issues such as the lifting of remaining sanctions, postwar reconstruction, and counter-terrorism during his upcoming official visit to Washington later this month — the first ever by a Syrian leader, the foreign minister announced on Sunday.
Syria’s top diplomat, Asaad Al-Shaibani, speaking during a panel session at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, said that President Ahmed Al-Sharaa is expected to arrive in the US capital in early November. “This visit is certainly historic,” he said.
“Many topics will be discussed, starting with the lifting of sanctions,” Shaibani said, adding, “Today we are fighting (the Islamic State) … any effort in this regard requires international support.”
He added that the discussions will also revolve around reconstruction after more than a decade of war.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry confirmed that the upcoming trip will mark the first-ever visit by a Syrian president to the White House.
On Saturday, US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said that President Ahmed Al-Sharaa was expected to travel to Washington “hopefully” to sign an agreement formalising Syria’s participation in the US-led international alliance against Daesh.
Although this will be Sharaa’s first official visit to Washington, it will be his second trip to the United States following a landmark appearance at the UN General Assembly in New York in September, where the former jihadist became the first Syrian president in decades to address the forum.
In May, the interim leader, whose Islamist forces overthrew longtime ruler Bashar Assad late last year, held his first meeting with US President Donald Trump in Riyadh — a historic encounter during which the US president pledged to lift economic sanctions on Syria.
Israel talks
Though Syria and Israel remain technically at war, the two countries began direct negotiations after Assad was overthrown by the opposition coalition last December.
President Donald Trump has voiced optimism that Syria might eventually join other Arab nations in normalising relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords.
However, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani clarified that “regarding Syria and the Abraham Accords, this is an issue that is not being considered and has not been discussed.”
Earlier this year, a Syrian official said that Damascus expected to finalise security and military agreements with Israel in 2025, marking a potential breakthrough less than a year after Assad’s fall.
Since December, Israel has stationed troops in the UN-patrolled buffer zone separating the two countries’ forces and carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria, to which Damascus has not responded militarily.
“We do not want Syria to enter a new war, and Syria is not currently in a position to threaten any party, including Israel,” said Shaibani.
