Why is Ahmed Al-Shara in Washington?
A member of Al-Qaeda, the same organization that carried out the September 11 attacks in the United States, who spent five years in an American prison and had a $10 million reward for his capture, has met with the US president three times in the past few months, with his third meeting at the White House being an official one.
Ahmed Al-Sharaa first met with Trump during his high-profile trip to the Persian Gulf region (in Saudi Arabia, a few months ago). Then, two months ago, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, he met with the US president again, and finally managed to attract Trump’s attention and receive an official invitation to the White House.
Of course, it should not be overlooked that Donald Trump’s friends in the region, such as the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, who are seeking to strengthen Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s position in Syria, have played an effective role in this.
It is worth noting that a year after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, his successor has still not been able to consolidate his rule over the country. Parts of Syria are occupied by Israel, the Druze region of Sweida is out of government control, the coastal Alawite region is in a state of flux, and the scars of the massacre of two to three thousand Alawites still linger on their bodies, and finally, the Kurds have maintained their autonomy in parts of the north and east, as in the past, and have not been able to reach an understanding with Damascus.
Considering the above points and the importance of this trip, we will examine what Donald Trump and Ahmed al-Sharaa’s goals will be from this meeting that will take place soon:
1- Tom Barak, Trump’s representative in Syria and Lebanon, stated on the sidelines of the Manama conference that a new round of talks between Syria and the Israeli regime will take place during Ahmed al-Sharaa’s visit to Washington. It is not yet clear whether these talks will take place in the presence of Trump at the White House or will reach a definitive conclusion during the meeting between Trump and Ahmed al-Sharaa.