Star Metro - UN Security Council votes to lift sanctions on Syrian president

"(The Council) decides that Ahmed al-Sharaa...and (Interior Minister) Anas Hasan Khattab are delisted from the ISIL and Al-Qaida Sanctions List," said the resolution, approved by 14 council members. China abstained.

The formal lifting of sanctions on Sharaa is largely symbolic as they were waived every time he needed to travel outside of Syria in his role as the country's leader. An assets freeze and arms embargo will also be lifted.

US President Donald Trump will host the Syrian leader for talks on November 10, having said the former jihadist had made "good progress" toward establishing peace in his war-torn country.

Though it will be Sharaa's first visit to Washington, it will be his second to the United States after a landmark UN trip in September, where the ex-jihadist became the first Syrian president in decades to address the UN General Assembly in New York.

In May, the interim leader, whose rebel forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president's regional tour.

Formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda, Sharaa's group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was delisted as a terrorist group by Washington as recently as July.

- Syria's new image -

Since taking power, Syria's new leaders have sought to break from their own violent extremist past, and present a moderate image more tolerable to ordinary Syrians and foreign powers.

Syria's president will discuss issues including lifting remaining sanctions, reconstruction and counter-terrorism when he visits Washington later this month, Damascus said Sunday.

Syria and Israel remain technically at war, but they opened direct negotiations after Assad was toppled by an Islamist-led coalition last December.

Trump has expressed hope that Syria will join other Arab countries that have normalized ties with Israel under the so-called Abraham Accords.

A Syrian official had told AFP earlier this year that Syria expects to finalize security and military agreements with Israel in 2025, in what would be a breakthrough less than a year after Assad's ouster.

Since December, Israel has deployed troops in a UN-patrolled buffer zone that separates the countries' forces and has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria. Damascus has not retaliated.

P.M.Martin--SMC