Syrian President Ahmed Sharaa has arrived in Washington for an official visit, just two days after the US formally revoked his status as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The former Islamist militant will meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, eleven months after his rebel alliance ousted Bashar al-Assad.Hours before his arrival in the US capital it was announced that Syrian security services had detained dozens of suspected members of the so-called Islamic State group.Joint efforts to tackle what remains of the group in Syria are expected to be high on the agenda during Sharaa’s talks with Trump.Syrian authorities said 71 suspected members of the group were arrested, with weapons and explosives also seized.Since taking power, Sharaa has looked to reestablish Syria’s presence on the world stage after decades of isolation under the Assad regime and 13 years of civil war.He travelled to the US in September to address the UN General Assembly, where he said Syria was “reclaiming its rightful place among the nations of the world” and called on the international community to remove sanctions.Earlier this week the UN Security Council backed a US resolution to lift measures, which coincided with Washington continuing a months-long process of gradually easing sanctions on Syria and its new leaders.On Friday, Sharaa and his interior minister, Anas Hasan Khattab, were removed from a US register of individuals suspected of supporting or funding extremist groups, a decision the Treasury Department said was “in recognition of the progress demonstrated by the Syrian leadership”.Sharaa had been listed under the name Muhammad al-Jawlani, the alias he used as leader of Hayat Tahr …
