US President Donald Trump is hosting Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa at the White House on Monday. 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 US 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-Qaeda and had a $10 million US bounty on his head — first met in May in Saudi Arabia. At the time, the US president described al-Sharaa as a “young, attractive guy... A tough guy with a very strong past.”