📍 Breaking News: This article covers the latest developments. Stay informed with comprehensive coverage.
Let us first agree that leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s visit to Washington is, in every sense, a historic event. He is the first syrian/" class="auto-internal-link">syrian leader since the republic’s founding in 1946 to set foot in the American capital and to meet its leader beneath the chandeliers of the White House. In that single gesture lies the seed of a potential reordering of the regional landscape—a profound strategic shift in the Middle East. Additionally, it carries the prospect that syria, long a steadfast ally of the Eastern bloc under Soviet and later Russian patronage, a cornerstone of the so-called Axis of Resistance and a strategic partner to Iran, might now pivot towards the West.
The country may even join the Abraham Accords in deference to the Trump administration’s vision, standing aligned with the United States in a manner unthinkable during the long years of the Asad era. Moreover, the symbolic weight of this moment remains undiminished, regardless of whether President Sharaa entered the White House through its grand front entrance or a discreet side door. The very occurrence of the visit, and the meeting with President Donald Trump, grants Sharaa a renewed mantle of legitimacy as the leader of post-Asad Syria, arming him with fresh political capital in the face of domestic rivals. He had already received an initial American endorsement with a public handshake in Riyadh last May.
Recommended: 📰 Syria’s stability, Ankara’s priority- Fidan says
The White House meeting—reportedly arranged through a joint Gulf-Turkish initiative—crowned that process with a reception of notable warmth, notwithstanding Trump’s reference to his guest’s “difficult past. ” Less than a year ago, Sharaa led a jihadi faction that splintered from the group responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Before that, he fought American troops in Iraq and was imprisoned as a member of the Islamic State. Only days before the visit, the UN security Council lifted sanctions imposed on him and his interior minister for their former ties to al-Qaeda. And now, he arrives in Washington to declare Syria’s readiness to formally join the Global Coalition against Daesh, formed by the United States in 2014, and, as per Reuters and multiple diplomatic sources, potentially to permit the establishment of an American armed forces base near Damascus.
A singular milestone, indeed—yet. This unprecedented journey marks a qualitative turning point in the evolution of the emerging Syria and its emerging role in the region, following the nurturing backing extended by the Arab Gulf states—chiefly Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United…