Sharaa appeared outside the White House on Monday (November 10) after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Syria’s foreign ministry, in a statement, described the meeting between President Trump and Al-Sharaa as 'friendly and constructive.'

President Trump is meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa today amid the administration's push for peace in the Middle East. This is the first time a Syrian head of state has visited the White House in almost 80 years.

Formerly aligned with al-Qaida with a U.S. bounty on his head, Ahmed al-Sharaa became Syria's president after leading the rebels who toppled the country's authoritarian Assad regime.

Syria will join the international coalition to combat the so-called Islamic State, marking a shift in US foreign policy in the Middle East, a senior Trump administration official confirmed to CBS, the BBC's US media partner.

Less than a year after his lightning power grab, Syria’s president Ahmed Al-Sharaa is capping his transformation from jihadist to global statesman in a historic visit to the White House that says as much about the young leader as it does his push for his country’s diplomatic reinvention.

The president’s meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa is the first-ever visit by a Syrian head of state to the White House.

Syria experts Reem Turkmani and Charles Lister speak with Paula Newton about the historic White House meeting between Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa and President Donald Trump.