US PRESIDENT Donald Trump met Syria’s jihadist interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa today, in the first such encounter between the two nations’ leaders in 25 years.

The meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh was remarkable, given that Mr Sharaa, under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, had close ties to al-Qaida and joined insurgents battling US forces in Iraq before entering the Syrian war. He was even imprisoned by US troops in Iraq for several years.