From Jailed Jihadist to the Oval Office: Syria’s President Caps Unlikely Rise With Trump Meeting

Inter­im Pres­i­dent Ahmad al-Sharaa’s meet­ing with Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump marks a dra­mat­ic mile­stone in one of the most improb­a­ble polit­i­cal trans­for­ma­tions in recent mem­o­ry: from impris­oned jihadist to Syria’s head of state, now stand­ing in the Oval Office.

A senior U.S. admin­is­tra­tion offi­cial told NBC News that al-Sharaa com­mit­ted to join­ing the U.S.-led coali­tion to defeat ISIS — a major shift in Syria’s engage­ment with the West.

Just a year ago, such a vis­it would have been unthink­able. Al-Sharaa, for­mer­ly known by his nom de guerre Abu Moham­mad al-Jolani, once led Hay­at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and car­ried a $10 mil­lion U.S. boun­ty on his head. Now, after top­pling the Assad regime, he has worked to shed his mil­i­tant image and present him­self as a leader focused on rebuild­ing a frac­tured nation.

“It was an hon­or to spend time with Ahmed Hus­sein al-Sharaa,” Trump post­ed on Truth Social after their meet­ing, call­ing him a major advo­cate for Mid­dle East peace. He added, “Hav­ing a sta­ble and suc­cess­ful Syr­ia is very impor­tant to all coun­tries in the region.”

Dur­ing the vis­it, the U.S. announced it would allow Syr­ia to resume oper­a­tions at its embassy in Wash­ing­ton, and diplo­mats will be per­mit­ted to return. The State Depart­ment also removed al-Sharaa and his inte­ri­or min­is­ter from the Spe­cial­ly Des­ig­nat­ed Glob­al Ter­ror­ist list. The U.K. and Euro­pean nations lift­ed their own sanc­tions after a U.N. Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil vote sup­port­ing the move.

Experts say the trip sig­nals a high lev­el of trust from Wash­ing­ton. “A high-lev­el sign of the trust that the Amer­i­can admin­is­tra­tion has placed in al-Sharaa,” said Bur­cu Ozce­lik of the Roy­al Unit­ed Ser­vices Insti­tute, not­ing hopes that he can hold Syr­ia togeth­er through a volatile tran­si­tion.

A Turning Point

Al-Sharaa rose to pow­er after lead­ing HTS in the over­throw of Assad last Decem­ber. Since then, he has attempt­ed a sweep­ing image over­haul, swap­ping fatigues for suits and pro­mot­ing a vision of nation­al uni­ty across Syria’s reli­gious and eth­nic divides.

Trump’s approach has dra­mat­i­cal­ly accel­er­at­ed Syria’s return to the inter­na­tion­al stage. The U.S. removed HTS from its ter­ror­ist des­ig­na­tion list and dropped the boun­ty on al-Sharaa before rolling back fur­ther sanc­tions fol­low­ing a May meet­ing between Trump and the Syr­i­an leader in Sau­di Ara­bia.

Though al-Sharaa addressed the U.N. Gen­er­al Assem­bly in New York in Sep­tem­ber, the White House vis­it marks Syria’s most sig­nif­i­cant diplo­mat­ic break­through in decades.

Still, chal­lenges remain. Al-Sharaa faces a deeply divid­ed coun­try, a resur­gent ISIS threat, com­pli­cat­ed rela­tions with Israel, and Russia’s ongo­ing efforts to main­tain influ­ence in Syr­ia while giv­ing haven to Assad.

Syr­ia con­tin­ues to expe­ri­ence vio­lence, includ­ing dead­ly attacks linked to gov­ern­ment forces. Ten­sions with Kur­dish author­i­ties have esca­lat­ed into clash­es in the north­east.

“He’s cer­tain­ly being very smart,” said for­mer British diplo­mat John Jenk­ins. “A trip to D.C. makes him look respectable — but the key issues are domes­tic.”

With­in Syr­ia, reac­tions to al-Sharaa remain mixed. Some, like polit­i­cal activist Sami Zain Al-Din of Swei­da, argue he “does not rep­re­sent the Syr­i­an peo­ple.” Oth­ers, like Dr. Jal­nar Hamad, hope his diplo­ma­cy could bring devel­op­ment and recon­struc­tion to long-neglect­ed regions.

Ilham Ahmed of the Syr­i­an Demo­c­ra­t­ic Coun­cil called the Trump meet­ing “an oppor­tu­ni­ty to rede­fine the posi­tion of the new Syr­i­an state,” empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of pro­tect­ing Kur­dish rights and hon­or­ing coali­tion part­ner­ships against ISIS.

Sanctions and Regional Dynamics

Al-Sharaa is seek­ing the removal of remain­ing U.S. sanc­tions imposed dur­ing Assad’s rule. Ana­lysts note that since May, sanc­tions have been lift­ed at an unusu­al­ly rapid pace. Karam Shaar, a Syr­ia ana­lyst, said two major sanc­tions — Syria’s des­ig­na­tion as a “state spon­sor of ter­ror­ism” and pro­vi­sions of the Cae­sar Act — may soon be lift­ed.

Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Rubio announced Mon­day that Syr­ia had received anoth­er waiv­er under the Cae­sar Act, which once severe­ly restrict­ed eco­nom­ic engage­ment with Assad’s regime.

Beyond sanc­tions, dis­cus­sions between Trump and al-Sharaa are expect­ed to include ISIS, Israeli-Syr­i­an ten­sions, and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of Syr­ia join­ing the Abra­ham Accords. Trump has hint­ed he hopes Syr­ia might ulti­mate­ly nor­mal­ize rela­tions with Israel, though Syr­ia has his­tor­i­cal­ly refused to rec­og­nize the coun­try and remains in a tech­ni­cal state of war since 1948.

Israel con­tin­ues to launch airstrikes inside Syr­ia tar­get­ing Iran-linked posi­tions. Even after Assad’s fall, Israeli forces have con­duct­ed oper­a­tions along a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone. Syr­ia has so far avoid­ed retal­ia­to­ry strikes, though both sides have kept com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels open.