Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa will visit Washington, D.C. on November 10 for his first official meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House.
The announcement was made by Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Tom Barrack, during the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain on Saturday. This will mark the first-ever visit by a Syrian head of state to the White House and only the second trip by Al-Sharaa to the United States since taking power after ousting Bashar al-Assad last December.
During the visit, Al-Sharaa is expected to meet with President Trump and sign an agreement for Syria to join the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS. The sudden announcement of the trip follows a series of meetings between Syrian and Russian officials, suggesting a strategic shift in Damascus’s diplomatic approach.
On October 15, Al-Sharaa traveled to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former adversary. According to regional reports, the Syrian leader requested that Russia maintain its military bases inside Syria and even resume patrols in the country’s southern regions.
Earlier this week, Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra also visited Moscow, where he met Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov and other officials to finalize new military cooperation agreements.
Western analysts have interpreted Al-Sharaa’s visit to Washington, alongside his continued engagement with Moscow, as an attempt by Damascus to use its relationship with Russia as leverage in talks with the U.S. Syrian officials are reportedly lobbying for the removal of the Caesar Act sanctions imposed in 2020, which have severely restricted Syria’s economy.
Trump’s invitation to Al-Sharaa comes amid a broader diplomatic push toward Russia’s traditional allies. On November 6, the leaders of the five former Soviet Central Asian states are also set to visit Washington for a C5+1 summit, where discussions are expected to focus on reducing Russian and Chinese influence in the region.