News Desk

WASHINGTON: Syria is joining the global coalition against the militant Islamic State (IS) group, a United States’ official said on Monday hours after US President Donald Trump welcomed his Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa for historic White House talks.

Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December last year, was the first Syrian leader to visit the White House since the Middle Eastern country’s independence in 1946.

But the 43-year-old’s landmark visit to the Oval Office came just days after Washington removed him from its terrorism list. Sharaa’s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda.

“During the visit, Syria announced that it is joining the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS,” becoming the 90th member of the alliance and “partnering with the United States to eliminate ISIS remnants and halt foreign fighter flows”, a senior administration official said.

According to the official, Syria will also be allowed to resume diplomatic relations with Washington “to further counterterrorism, security, and economic coordination”.

Trump said he wanted Syria to become “very successful” after more than a decade of civil war and added that he believed Sharaa “can do it, I really do”.

“He’s a very strong leader. He comes from a very tough place, and he’s a tough guy,” Trump told reporters after the meeting, which was closed to press.

“People said he’s had a rough past, we’ve all had rough pasts… And I think, frankly, if you didn’t have a rough past, you wouldn’t have a chance.”