WASHINGTON —

President Donald Trump is hosting Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa at the White House on Monday, welcoming the once-pariah state into a U.S.-led global coalition to fight the Islamic State group.

It's the first visit to the White House by a Syrian head of state since the Middle Eastern country gained independence from France in 1946 and comes after the U.S. lifted sanctions imposed on Syria during the decades the country was ruled by the Assad family. Al-Sharaa led the rebel forces that toppled former Syrian President Bashar Assad last December and was named the country's interim leader in January .

Trump and al-Sharaa — who once had ties to al-Qaida and had a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head — first met in May in Saudi Arabia. At the time, the U.S. president

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