(MENAFN- Live Mint) Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the United States on Saturday for a historic official visit, his country's state news agency reported.

The visit comes just a day after Washington removed him from its terrorism blacklist.

Sharaa, whose rebel forces overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, is scheduled to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.

According to analysts, this marks the first visit by a Syrian president to the United States since the country gained independence in 1946.

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The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president's regional tour in May.

Washington's envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said earlier this month that Sharaa would“hopefully” sign an agreement to join the international US-led alliance against the Islamic State (IS) group.

The United States plans to establish a military base near Damascus“to coordinate humanitarian aid and observe developments between Syria and Israel,” a diplomatic source in Syria told AFP.

The State Department's decision Friday to remove Sharaa from the blacklist was widely expected.

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Days ahead of al-Sharaa's visit, Trump told reporters that he had moved to lift sanctions from Syria“to give them a fighting shot, and I think (al-Sharaa's) doing a very good job so far.”

“It's a tough neighborhood and he's a tough guy, but I got along with him very well, and a lot of progress has been made with Syria,” he said.

What's on agenda?

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Sharaa's government had been meeting US demands, including on working to find missing Americans and on eliminating any remaining chemical weapons.

“These actions are being taken in recognition of the progress demonstrated by the Syrian leadership after the departure of Bashar al-Assad and more than 50 years of repression under the Assad regime,” Pigott said.

The spokesman added that the US delisting would promote "regional security and stability as well as an inclusive, Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process."

The Syrian interior ministry announced on Saturday that it had carried out 61 raids and made 71 arrests in a "proactive campaign to neutralise the threat" of IS, according to the official SANA news agency.

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It said the raids targeted locations where IS sleeper cells remain, including Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, Homs, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa and Damascus.

After his arrival, Sharaa met with representatives from Syrian organisations in Washington, according to his country's official media.

The Syrian foreign minister posted a social media video, filmed before Sharaa's departure, of him playing basketball with CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper and Kevin Lambert, the head of the international anti-IS operation in Iraq, alongside the caption“work hard, play harder.”

Transformation

Sharaa's visit to Washington follows his landmark trip to the United Nations in September, which marked his first time on US soil. During that visit, the former jihadist became the first Syrian president in decades to address the UN General Assembly in New York.

On Thursday, Washington spearheaded a Security Council vote to lift UN sanctions against him.

Previously linked to Al-Qaeda, Sharaa's group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was removed from the US terrorist list as recently as July.

Since assuming power, Syria's new leadership has aimed to distance itself from its violent past, projecting a more moderate image to both ordinary Syrians and the international community.

The White House visit“is further testament to the US commitment to the new Syria and a hugely symbolic moment for the country's new leader, who thus marks another step in his astonishing transformation from militant leader to global statesman,” International Crisis Group US program director Michael Hanna said.

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Sharaa is expected to seek funds for Syria, which faces significant challenges in rebuilding after 13 years of civil war. In October, the World Bank put a“conservative best estimate” of the cost of rebuilding Syria at $216 billion.

Before Assad's fall, al-Sharaa - then known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani - led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamic insurgent group controlling much of northwestern Syria. It was formerly an offshoot of al-Qaida but later split from it. HTS and IS were rivals, and al-Sharaa cracked down on Islamic State cells in the area he controlled.

The main U.S. partner in the fight against IS at the time was the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the country's northeast.

Since al-Sharaa took power, the U.S. military has expanded its cooperation with Damascus and Washington has pushed for a deal to merge the SDF and the new Syrian army.

(With inputs from agencies)

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