Syria will play an active role in assisting the United States in fighting armed groups, including Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Hamas and Hezbollah, US special envoy Tom Barrack said on Thursday.

Islamist interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, himself a former jihadist, became the first Syrian leader to visit the White House since his country’s independence in 1946.

Shortly after his visit, the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group (ISIS) announced that Syria had become its 90th member.

On Thursday, Barrack wrote on X that “Damascus will now actively assist us in confronting and dismantling the remnants of ISIS, the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), Hamas, Hizballah, and other terrorist networks.”

Iran’s powerful IRGC and Lebanon’s Hezbollah were key backers of Syria’s previous president, Bashar al-Assad, before he was ousted last December by a rebel coalition led by Sharaa.

Hamas does not have an armed presence in Syria.

Barrack also said he held a “pivotal” meeting with US top diplomat Marco Rubio, Turkey’s Hakan Fidan and Syria’s Asaad al-Shaibani, during which they discussed steps toward “integrating the Syrian........

© The Times of Israel