LONDON: Nothing perhaps better illustrates the dramatic geopolitical shift underway in the Middle East than the footage that emerged on Sunday of Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa playing basketball with Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of the US military’s Central Command.

The footage, apparently filmed the day before Al-Sharaa’s historic meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, was released on social media by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani, along with a simple caption: “Work hard, play harder.”

The Syrian president has certainly been working hard.

Not that many years ago, the commander of CENTCOM, responsible for all US military operations in the Middle East, had his sights set on Al-Sharaa as a designated terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head.

Now, here he was shooting hoops with the man CENTCOM had once been under orders to shoot to kill.

It was not the first time Al-Sharaa has rubbed shoulders with a former enemy. In September, he shared a stage at the 2025 Concordia Annual Summit in New York with David Petraeus, the retired US general.

In 2006, Petraeus was commander of the US troops in Iraq who captured Al-Sharaa, then an insurgent, and imprisoned him for five years.

At the summit in September, Petraeus admitted he was “a fan” of his former enemy, adding: “His trajectory from insurgent leader to head of state has been one of the most dramatic political transformations in recent Middle Eastern history.”

It is only 11 months since Bashar Assad was overthrown after 24 years in power — the last 13 of which Syria spent engulfed in a bloody civil war. 

Yet in those 11 months, Syria’s international rehabilitation and the acceptance of Al-Sharaa has been as fast and comprehensive as it has been dramatic.

Monday’s meeting in Washington between Trump and Al-Sharaa was the culmination of months of pragmatic diplomacy by the US and its allies in the region — and of a determination by Al-Sharaa to prove he is a president for all Syrians.

In February, Al-Sharaa’s very first foreign trip as leader was to Saudi Arabia, where he met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In September, Al-Sharaa made history when he became the first Syrian leader to address the UN General Assembly in six decades.

In those 60 years, he said, Syria had fallen “under the rule of a tyrannical regime that ignored the value of the land it ruled, and oppressed a kind and peaceful people.” Now, Syria was “reclaiming its rightful place among the nations of the world.”

He added: “On behalf of the Syrian people, I extend gratitude to all who stood by their cause, who aided them in their tragedy, who welcomed them in their countries, and to all nations and peoples who rejoiced in the victory of the Syrian people’s will, and who stand with them today in their march toward peace and prosperity.”

Particular thanks, he said, went to Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Qatar, the US, and the EU.

The following month, Al-Sharaa was back in Riyadh, this time for the Future Investment Initiative conference. At a session attended by the crown prince, Al-Sharaa made no secret of the importance he placed on Saudi support.

“Our first external visit was to Saudi Arabia because we recognize that the key to the world lies here in the Kingdom,” he said.

The immediate prelude to Monday’s historic meeting in the White House was the removal of Al-Sharaa and his interior minister, Anas Hasan Khattab, from the UN Security Council’s sanctions list targeting Daesh and Al-Qaeda.

In May, Trump announced he planned to lift US sanctions on Syria to “give them a chance at greatness.” 

The sanctions, he said, “were brutal and crippling and served as an important — really an important function — nevertheless, at the time. But now it’s their time to shine … So, I say good luck, Syria. Show us something very special.”

In a statement at the time, the White House said: “The world should take notice — if you want to take meaningful steps towards peace and stability, then the US is willing to move rapidly to support you.”

Trump, it added, believes “there is great potential in working with Syria to stop radicalism, improve relations, and secure peace in the Middle East.”

At the time, restrictions on trade and investment in Syria, imposed under the US Caesar Act, were suspended for six months.

On Monday, that suspension was renewed for a further six months, permitting “the transfer of most basic civilian use US-origin goods, as well as software and technology, to or within Syria.”

Syria had sought the complete removal of restrictions rather than a further suspension. It is clear the US remains prepared to wield the Caesar Act as both a carrot and a stick.

The suspension of the act, said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a statement, “supports Syria’s efforts to rebuild its economy, restore ties with foreign partners, and foster prosperity and peace for all its citizens.”

Trump, he added, had “made clear the US expects to see concrete actions by the Syrian government to turn the page on the past and work towards peace in the region.”

When Trump and Al-Sharaa met and shook hands in Riyadh in May, it was the first meeting between a US and Syrian leader for a quarter of a century.

At the time, Al-Sharaa still had a $10 million bounty on his head as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist — a decade-long designation that was only formally withdrawn on Friday last week.

Al-Sharaa was the leader of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, formerly the Syrian off-shoot of Al-Qaeda, which emerged as an independent group in 2016 and went on to overthrow the Assad regime. The US designation of HTS as a foreign terrorist organization was revoked in July.

Since then, the State Department has sought to persuade the other 14 members of the UN Security Council to remove restrictions on Syria’s new leadership. The result was Resolution 2799, adopted with just one abstention by China on Thursday.

After the UN vote, Trump said Al-Sharaa was “doing a very good job. It’s a tough neighborhood, and he’s a tough guy, but I got along with him very well. And a lot of progress has been made with Syria.”

Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow at the London-based defense and security think tank RUSI, said the outcome of the vote will allow Syria to confront several challenges.

“The moderation trajectory of Al-Sharaa’s approach to government and his own pragmatism, if harnessed and supported by the international community, can wield economic and democratic dividends for Syria,” she told Arab News.

“But we need to be realistic about the severity of the multisided pressures on Al-Sharaa’s rule and the herculean task of building Syria.”

A report in October by the World Bank said that nearly one third of the country’s “pre-conflict gross capital stock” was damaged, and estimated the cost of reconstruction at $216 billion — about ten times Syria’s projected gross domestic product for 2024.

But the report made clear there was an appetite for investment in the new Syria among the 189 member states of the World Bank, an international cooperative which provides low- or no-interest loans and grants to developing countries.

“The challenges ahead are immense, but the World Bank stands ready to work alongside the Syrian people and the international community to support recovery and reconstruction,” said Jean-Christophe Carret, World Bank Middle East division director, in October.

“Collective commitment, coordinated action, and a comprehensive, structured support program are critical to helping Syria on its path to recovery and long-term development.”

Funding aside, Al-Sharaa also faces internal political challenges.

“We also need to recognize that the federalism debate for the future governance of Syria is not one that is taken up seriously inside the country — it is largely an externally driven set of ideas,” said Ozcelik.

Nevertheless, “pragmatic diplomacy can be a constructive driver of change in Syria, and Monday’s meeting is a reflection of the much-needed mood of optimism that Al-Sharaa has been able to muster for the country.”

She added: “The external legitimation offered by President Trump is important, but it needs to be matched with domestic and inclusive political legitimation within Syria. This will take time but is essential for the country’s stabilization.”

Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the London-based think tank Chatham House, told Arab News: “Al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House marks a pivotal reset in US-Syria relations.

“By welcoming him and signalling support for sanctions relief, the Trump administration is betting that engagement can yield greater regional stability than containment ever did.”

The move, she added, also “reflects Washington’s recognition of Syria’s strategic role, not just in counter-terrorism and regional energy routes but also as a country searching for stability and economic renewal after decades of war and external interference.”

After Monday’s White House meeting, it emerged that Syria had agreed to join the Global Coalition Against Daesh, formed in 2014, becoming the 90th country to do so and joining regional members including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Jordan.

According to a US statement, Syria was “partnering with the US to eliminate ISIS (Daesh) remnants and halt foreign fighter flows.” The US, it added, “will allow Syria to resume operations at its Embassy in Washington to further counterterrorism, security, and economic coordination.”

Trump’s invitation for the new Syrian government to join the coalition “signals a new level of trust in Al-Sharaa and his administration,” Caroline Rose, director of the Crime-Conflict Nexus and Military Withdrawals portfolios at the New Lines Institute, told Arab News.

“Over this last year, Washington and Damascus have coordinated closely and have exchanged intelligence regarding ISIS (Daesh) activity, facilitating tip-offs that prevented several ISIS attempted attacks.”

The US, she said, also wants to bring about “a security integration deal” between Damascus and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which have discussed integration but have clashed with the forces of the new government on a number of occasions.

“The US seeks to use Syria’s admittance into the Global Coalition as a tool to expedite talks and pressure both sides to reach relative consensus.”