Trump and al-Sharaa met before a larger meeting with leaders within GCC, a cooperative body around the Persian Gulf, in Saudi Arabia during Trump's tour of the region.
The meeting took place after Trump announced on Tuesday that the US would lift its sanctions against Syria. According to a statement from the White House, Trump urged al-Sharaa to normalize relations with Israel, deport "Palestinian terrorists" and take responsibility for the IS camps in northeastern Syria.
Trump says he decided to meet with al-Sharaa after being encouraged by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In the half-hour meeting, the Crown Prince participated, Trump and al-Sharaa. Erdogan also attended via video link, according to the Turkish state news agency Anatolia.
Syria's leader Ahmed al-Sharaa led the extremist Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a movement that was terrorist-listed for links to al-Qaeda, in the rebellion that led to the fall of the Assad regime last year.
