President Donald Trump hailed Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa as a “tough guy” capable of rebuilding his war-torn nation, following an unprecedented meeting at the White House on Monday.
“He’s a very strong leader. He comes from a very tough place, and he’s a tough guy,” Trump told reporters after the closed-door talks. “People said he’s had a rough past — we’ve all had rough pasts — and frankly, if you didn’t have a rough past, you wouldn’t have a chance.”
Trump also said Syria was a “big part” of his broader Middle East peace plan, which he hopes will help sustain the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
According to CBS, citing an unnamed a senior official familiar with the talks, Syria has agreed to join the international coalition to combat ISIS. Formed in 2014, the U.S.-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS was created to dismantle the terror group’s self-declared “caliphate,” coordinating military strikes, intelligence sharing, and stabilization efforts among more than 80 member nations.
Although ISIS no longer controls territory in Syria or Iraq, U.S. and regional intelligence agencies estimate that several thousand fighters remain active, exploiting weak local governance and refugee camps to regroup and recruit.
Once a senior figure in al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch, al-Sharaa later broke away to lead Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a rebel group that overthrew longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad in December. Until recently, al-Sharaa was listed by the U.S. Treasury Department as a designated global terrorist and carried a $10 million bounty for his capture.
Media Credit: Syrian Presidency/X
Seeking to ease tensions, Trump signed an executive order in June lifting broader economic sanctions on Syria to “support the country’s path toward stability and peace.” At the time, the White House said it would monitor Damascus’s next steps, including “taking measures to normalize ties with Israel” and dismantling remaining jihadist networks.
Yet despite his rehabilitation abroad, al-Sharaa’s rule at home has been marred by violence between Sunni Bedouin fighters and Druze minorities, along with reports of reprisals against members of Syria’s Alawite community.
Yesterday’s meeting was the third encounter between the two leaders this year, following talks during the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in May and a dinner on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September.
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