Syria will join the international coalition against the Islamic State group (ISIS), marking a major turning point in the United States’ foreign policy in the Middle East.
The news was confirmed by a senior official from President Donald Trump’s administration. With this decision, Syria becomes the 90th country to join the global coalition, which aims to eliminate the remaining elements of ISIS and curb the flow of foreign fighters to the region.
The announcement came on the same day that President Trump hosted Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the White House, the first-ever visit by a Syrian head of state in the history of relations between the two countries.
In an interview for Special Report on Fox News, al-Sharaa described the meeting as “the beginning of a new era,” in which Syria and the United States will work closely together. Trump expressed open support for al-Sharaa, who until recently had been declared a terrorist by the U.S. government:
“Well, I made a deal with him. He’s a very strong leader. He comes from a country with many problems — a tough guy, but I liked him. I get along well with him, with the new President of Syria. And we’re going to do everything we can to make Syria successful because it’s part of the Middle East. Now we have peace in the Middle East. Syria is a very big, very important part of the region. If you look back, they had doctors, lawyers, and so many brilliant intellectuals. It was a wonderful country, with great people. We want to see Syria succeed along with the rest of the Middle East. So, I believe he can do the job. Absolutely.”
After the meeting, another senior U.S. official confirmed that the Department of the Treasury, along with the Departments of State and Commerce, will announce new measures to ease economic restrictions on Syria and provide legal clarity to investors seeking to enter the Syrian market.
According to these measures, the U.S. administration will suspend the Caesar Act for 180 days, a law that since 2019 had imposed severe sanctions on the former Syrian regime.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries had been severed since 2012, but now Washington will allow Syria to reopen its embassy in the U.S. capital. This was the third meeting between the two leaders, following one in May during the Gulf Cooperation Council summit and another in September during a dinner held at the U.N. General Assembly.
