The visit will be the first ever by a Syrian president to the White House. Formally, the trip is about al-Sharaa signing an agreement that his country will be part of the US-led global coalition against ISIS.
Ahmed al-Sharaa was the leader of the Islamist rebel group HTS which led the overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assad in December last year.
The movement, which was linked to al-Qaeda, has been officially dissolved, but its members have been incorporated into the new state apparatus. The US lifted its terrorist designation of the group in July of this year, and the UK did so as recently as the other week.
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