This handout photograph released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on November 10, 2025, shows Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington DC. HANDOUT / AFP
US President Donald Trump hailed his Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa after unprecedented talks at the White House Monday, November 10, saying Sharaa's "rough" past as a jihadist would help him rebuild the war-torn country.
Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late 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.
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."
