WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump on Monday met with Syrian interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa at the White House, widely seen as a crucial step in normalizing US-Syria relations.

No reporters and cameras were allowed to get access to the meeting in the Oval Office.

Syria is putting the permanent repeal of US sanctions as its top priority, while Washington focuses on bringing Damascus into the US-led global coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) group, officials from both countries revealed before the Monday talks.

Trump waived the Caesar Act sanctions on Syria for 180 days when he met with al-Sharaa for the first time in Saudi Arabia in May, but a permanent repeal would require Congress to act.

Syria has launched a large-scale security operation across several provinces to track down IS cells, said Syria's interior authorities on Saturday, when al-Sharaa arrived in Washington.

ALSO READ: Syria launches nationwide anti-IS operation

Al-Sharaa's visit is "part of the president's efforts in diplomacy to meet with anyone around the world in the pursuit of peace," said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Ahead of al-Sharaa's arrival, the UN Security Council voted Thursday to remove al-Sharaa and Syrian interim interior minister Anas Khattab from the IS and al-Qaeda sanctions list. The White House followed suit the next day.

Al-Sharaa once joined al-Qaeda and was wanted by the United States as a terrorist with a bounty of $10 million on his head, but severed his ties with the terrorist organization years ago and led the rebel forces that toppled then Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, bringing the country's brutal 14-year-long civil war to an end.