BEIRUT (AP) — A Syrian official said Tuesday that his country joined the global coalition against the Islamic State during President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s historic visit to Washington, but that Syria is not part of the U.S.-led military mission fighting the extremist group.
Al-Sharaa met with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday and announced his country’s “desire, intentions and readiness” to join the 89 other countries making up the coalition, which
have committed to combat IS, but there is no signed agreement, Syrian Minister of Information Hamza al-Mustafa said in a telephone interview.
“A political coalition is different from Operation Inherent Resolve, which is a military operations room,” he said, referring to the U.S-led military mission against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, which has for years partnered with Iraqi security forces and with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria.
The U.S. had no diplomatic relations with Syria under former President Bashar Assad, but ties have warmed since Assad’s fall last year in a rebel offensive led by al-Sharaa, the former commander of an Islamist insurgent group.
“There is coordination between the United States of America and the Syrian government at present, in some cases” on anti-IS operations, Mustafa said. “But Syria is not part of the Operation Inherent Resolve that is carrying out the operations of this coalition.”
The U.S. has not publicly announced Syria’s entry into the coalition.
A senior U.S. administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because there hadn’t yet been a formal announcement said after al-Sharaa’s meeting with Trump on Monday that Syria formally confirmed that it would join the global coalition.
Al-Sharaa’s visit was the first to the White House by a Syrian head of state since the Middle Eastern country gained independence from France in 1946.
Apart from entry into the coalition, al-Sharaa used the visit to push for a permanent repeal of sanctions that punished Syria for widespread allegations of human rights abuses by Assad’s government and security forces. While the Caesar Act sanctions are currently waived by Trump — a waiver that was renewed Monday for another six months — a permanent repeal would require Congress to act.
Another topic on the agenda was the ongoing talks between Israel and Syria.
Israel has regarded al-Sharaa warily. Since Assad’s fall, Israeli forces have seized a formerly U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria set up under a 1974 disengagement agreement, launched hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian military sites, and pushed for a demilitarized zone south of Damascus. The two countries, which do not have diplomatic relations, have been negotiating a potential security agreement.
Hamza said there are ongoing negotiations but “nothing new regarding the possibility of reaching a security agreement.” A full normalization of diplomatic relations as part of a series of U.S.-mediated deals known as the Abraham Accords is not on the table, he said, a position that has been previously stated by al-Sharaa.
“We’re not in the position now to talk about the Abraham Accords, because Israel is occupying part of our country,” Hamza said. Before discussing normalization of relations, he said, the two countries must return to the 1974 agreement or reach another agreement that “includes the withdrawal of Israel from all territory occupied after Dec. 8” when Assad’s government fell.
