US removes Syria's President Ahmad Al Shara from terror list ahead of Washington visit

Defence Minister Anas Khattab also taken off schedule of Specially Designated Global Terrorists

Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara attends the opening of the Cop30 summit in Belem, Brazil, on Thursday. EPA

The US has formally removed Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara from a terrorism blacklist, days before he is set to meet President Donald Trump at the White House.

The move, announced by the State Department on Friday, was widely expected and came a day after Washington led a vote by the Security Council to remove UN sanctions on him.

“These actions are being taken in recognition of the progress demonstrated by the Syrian leadership after the departure of Bashar Al Assad and more than 50 years of repression under the Assad regime,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.

Mr Al Shara's government is meeting US demands, including on work to find missing Americans and eliminating any remaining chemical weapons, he said.

The US also lifted the terrorist designation of Mr Al Shara's Defence Minister Anas Khattab, Mr Pigott said.

Mr Al Shara, who led the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham rebel group, formed from an entity that broke away from Al Qaeda, had been declared a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US, which put a bounty on his head.

HTS led a lightning rebel offensive that overran Damascus on December 8 last year and forced Mr Al Assad to flee to Russia. Mr Al Shara subsequently dissolved the group.

Mr Trump revoked most US sanctions against Syria in June, after meeting Mr Al Shara in Saudi Arabia during a tour of the Gulf the previous month.

Mr Al Shara has made a series of foreign trips as his transitional government seeks to re-establish Syria's ties with world powers that had shunned Damascus during Mr Al Assad's rule.