Trump meets Shara at the White House

US President Donald Trump received Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the White House on Monday in a visit that culminates a pivotal year for Syria.

A White House official said that the meeting between the two leaders had begun.

Trump received Al-Sharaa in the first ever visit by a Syrian president to the White House, six months after their first meeting in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Sharaa arrived at the White House without fanfare, as happens with visits by foreign leaders. He entered through a side entrance that the journalists did not see, instead of the main door of the West Wing, where the cameras were waiting for him.

Security is likely to be at the top of the discussions at the meeting on Monday.

Days before the meeting, Trump told reporters at the White House that “significant progress” had been made in the Syrian file.

He added, “I think Sharaa is doing well. It is a complex area and he is a strong man, but I got along with him very well.”

Just hours before the historic meeting, two senior officials said that Syria had foiled two separate ISIS plots to assassinate Al-Sharaa.