The United Nations Security Council voted on Thursday in favor of a US resolution lifting sanctions on Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, ahead of his visit to the White House next week.
"(The Council) decides that Ahmed al-Sharaa... and (Interior Minister) Anas Hasan Khattab be removed from the (ISIS) and al-Qaeda Sanctions List," said the resolution, approved by 14 members of the council, foreign media write, according to Telegraph.
China abstained.
The White House confirmed earlier this week that US President Donald Trump would meet with al-Sharaa at the White House on Monday.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani announced that al-Sharaa would discuss issues including the lifting of remaining sanctions, reconstruction and the fight against terrorism when he becomes the country's first leader to pay an official visit to Washington.
On Saturday, US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said al-Sharaa was heading to Washington "hoping" to sign an agreement to join the US-led international alliance against ISIS.
Although this will be al-Sharaa's first visit to Washington, it will be his second to the US following a historic trip to the UN in September, where he became the first Syrian president in decades to address the UN General Assembly in New York.
In May, al-Sharaa, who led the armed opposition forces that toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, met with Trump for the first time in Riyadh during a historic visit that led to the US leader pledging to lift economic sanctions on Syria.
