The UN Security Council has removed sanctions on Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former al Qaeda leader who now rules Syria, ahead of his visit to the White House to meet with Donald Trump.
Mr Sharaa took over as president after leading an Islamist rebel offensive to overthrow Bashar al Assad’s government in December 2024, ending over a decade of civil war.
The resolution to lift sanctions on Mr Sharaa and his interior minister, Anas Khatta, was introduced by the US on Thursday and received 14 votes in favour, with China alone abstaining.
Mr Sharaa was sanctioned by the UN in 2014 as leader of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, then the Syrian chapter of al Qaeda.
Mr Sharaa, under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, rose through the ranks of al Qaeda and a precursor of Isis called ISI, fighting occupying US forces in Iraq before entering the Syrian civil war. He was captured and imprisoned by US troops for several years.
His group broke ranks with al Qaeda in 2016 and it was removed by the US from its list of foreign terror groups in July.
On Thursday, Mr Trump praised Mr Sharaa for doing a “very good job” as Syria’s leader.
“It's a tough neighbourhood, and he's a tough guy, but I got along with him very well. And a lot of progress has been made with Syria,” the US president said. “We did take the sanctions off Syria in order to give them a fighting shot.”
Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, said the resolution was a “strong political signal” that recognised Syria was in a new era.
The American government, he claimed, was “working hard to fulfil its commitments on countering terrorism and narcotics, on eliminating any remnants of chemical weapons, and promoting regional security and stability as well as an inclusive Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process”.
Syria’s ambassador, Ibrahim Olabi, hailed the move as a “message of support for Syrian women and men in their effort to rebuild their homeland and restore their lives”.
“The new Syria will be a success story,” he told the Security Council. “It will be a shining model that proves the optimal path in international relations is positive engagement and constructive cooperation. If there’re concerns, Syria is fully prepared to address them with sincere intent based on mutual respect.”
Mr Sharaa is visiting Washington on Monday for the first time since he took power, a long stride for a man once designated by the US as a terrorist with a $10m bounty on his head.
In September, Mr Sharaa visited New York for the UN General Assembly session, becoming the first Syrian president to address the international body in 58 years.
Mr Trump first met Mr Sharaa in May when the US president was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on a Middle East tour. He later described the Syrian leader as a “tough guy” with a “very strong past”.
China abstained on the resolution because it did not properly address its concerns about counterterrorism and security in Syria, Beijing’s ambassador Fu Cong noted.
Beijing has long voiced concerns about the presence of the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement in Syria.
The group, also called the Turkestan Islamic Party and dominated by Uyghurs from China and Central Asia, was one of the Islamist militias that helped Mr Sharaa take over the Arab country.
China accuses the group, which aims to establish an independent country of “East Turkestan” in the country’s northwest, of waging terrorist violence in the Xinjiang province, where Beijing is accused of overseeing widespread abuses of the mainly Muslim ethnic minority.
Mr Fu said the resolution adopted on Thursday "makes it clear" that Syria should "take decisive actions to combat terrorist acts and respond to the threat of foreign terrorist fighters, which include ETIM”.
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