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. The meeting arrives 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 Syrian President Bashar Assad last December and was named the country’s interim leader in January. He had ties to al-Qaida and once had a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. Now he's the first Syrian head of state to visit the White House since the Middle Eastern country gained independence from France in 1946.

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