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Rabat – US President Donald Trump hosted Syrian President Ahmed Al Sharaa, formerly known as Al Julani, in the White House Oval Office on Monday. This comes less than a year after the Syrian President’s parliamentary group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) toppled Bashar Al Assad’s 24-year-long regime.
The talks lasted two hours and were closed to the press, though the focus was evidently on the new geopolitical and economic standing of post-Assad Syria.
Investment and economic opportunity
In an interview with Fox News, Al Sharaa referred to talks of investment opportunity and the economic opening of Syria; an especially appealing opportunity for Trump given Syria’s abundant oil and gas resources.
Al Sharaa’s arrival to the Oval Office marks an impressive and quick turnaround for the Syrian leader in the eyes of Washington. Al Sharaa had previously served five years in a US jail in Iraq during the Iraq War before going on to lead an Al Qaeda offshoot in Syria with a $10 million US bounty on his head. That bounty was officially scraped in December 2024, following a meeting between Washington and HTS.
Only last Friday, Trump removed the Syrian president from the Specifically Designated Global Terrorist list. He additionally, rolled back economic sanctions that were imposed on Syria since 2011, and officially repealed the Caesar Act – a civil protection sanction imposed on Syria in 2019 – after yesterday’s talks.
Trump’s concession: for Syria to join Abraham Accords
President Trump’s central ask in return for this list of actions and the renewal of ties between the two countries is direct: he wants Syria to join the Abraham Accords.
Al Sharaa was insistent that Syria was no longer a security threat to the region, adding, even for Israel, America’s closest ally. However, when asked point-blank about whether Syria would be open to joining the Accords, the Syrian President responded bluntly: “We are not going to enter into a negotiation [with Israel] right now.”
The question of Kurdish integration
Following the fall of Assad’s regime the question of Kurdish integration into Syria is an ongoing primary concern for foreign observers following the future of Syria.
At the same time as the Al Sharaa-Trump talks, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with the Turkish and Syrian Foreign Minister to touch on a previously discussed deal between Damascus and the Kurds, a historically oppressed ethnic minority and leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who wish to join Syria as a semi-autonomous region.
The relationship between HTS and Kurdish-led forces, has been unstable, making the concern for Kurdish integration especially significant.
The US is once again facing criticism over its intentions in the region, with many recalling its history of abandoning its Kurdish allies. Observers warn that the Kurds could again be marginalized and sidelined if Washington prioritizes oil interests and diplomatic ties with Ankara and Damascus.
A turning point
The Syrian President’s visit to the White House marks the first time a Syrian head of state was in Washington since Syria gained independence from the French in 1946.
Syria also formally confirmed that it would join as the 90th member of the global coalition against the Islamic State, and Al Sharaa emphasized his distancing from his past with Al Qaeda.
