NEW YORK: Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa renewed his call on Monday for Washington to formally lift US sanctions imposed under the 2019 Caesar Act and played down the prospect of normalization with the Zionist entity while visiting New York to attend the first UN General Assembly of a Syrian leader in nearly six decades. Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda leader, led rebel forces that overthrew Bashar Al-Assad’s government last year. US President Donald Trump met him in Riyadh in May and ordered most sanctions lifted but the Caesar Syria Civil Protection Act of 2019 authorizing them remains US law.

Speaking at a summit on the sidelines of the annual General Assembly, Sharaa said the sanctions imposed on the previous Syrian leadership were no longer justified and were increasingly seen by Syrians as measures targeting them directly. “We have a big mission to build the economy,” Sharaa said. “Syria has a diverse workforce. They love to work, it’s in its genes. So don’t be worried, just lift the sanctions and you will see the results.”

Sharaa, the first Syrian president to participate in the General Assembly since 1967, is expected to deliver his first address at the General Assembly, which opens its 80th session on Tuesday. Members of Congress have been debating whether to repeal the Caesar Act, which imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Syria under Assad. Some lawmakers, including

Trump’s fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, want its repeal to be included as an amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act, a sweeping defense bill expected to pass by the end of December.

Washington has separately been pressuring Syria to reach a security deal with the Zionist entity during the New York meetings this week, Reuters reported. The Zionist entity and Syria remain formally in a state of war rooted in territorial disputes, military confrontations and deep-seated political mistrust. Damascus hopes to secure a halt to Zionist airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.

Sharaa said those talks had reached an advanced stage and he hoped the outcome would preserve Syria’s sovereignty and address Zionist security concerns. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, told Axios he would support canceling sanctions against Syria if Sharaa’s government officially moved toward a new security deal with the Zionist entity and joined a coalition against the Islamic State extremist group.

Asked whether Syria could join the Abraham Accords that some Arab countries have signed to normalize relations with the Zionist entity, Sharaa said anger over the Zionist entity’s occupation of Syrian territory would influence the country’s position toward the Zionist entity. “Israel must withdraw from Syrian land, and security concerns can be addressed in talks. The question is whether Israel’s concerns are truly about security or about expansionist designs — this is what the talks will reveal,” Sharaa said.

“Syria is different as those that are part of the Abraham Accords are not Israel’s neighbors. Syria has been subjected to more than 1,000 Israeli raids, strikes and incursions from the Golan Heights into Syria,” he said. He voiced doubts about trusting the Zionist entity, questioning whether it sought to expand in Syria and charging that the Zionist entity has violated peace agreements with two other neighbors, Egypt and Jordan. “There is also huge anger over what’s going on in Gaza, not only in Syria but in the entire world, and of course this impacts our position on Israel,” he said.

Sharaa, who as a militant leader had a $10 million US government bounty on his head, was interviewed in New York by retired General David Petraeus, who commanded US forces during the Iraq War, putting the two men on opposing sides as Sharaa joined the insurgency following the 2003 US invasion. “It’s good that we were once in the battlefield zone and have now moved to another theater — that of dialogue,” Sharaa told Petraeus.

Syria remains deeply fractured after 13 years of civil war. Sharaa said a deal with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, in control of the northeast of the country, was delayed. Calls for decentralization by Kurdish parties were a step toward separation that risked igniting a wider war, he said. “This could present threats to Iraq, Turkey and even Syria,” he added. Sharaa later met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in New York and did not respond to a reporter asking if he was hopeful that the US would lift the sanctions.