The United Nations Security Council has removed sanctions on Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.

The US-drafted resolution on Thursday also lifted sanctions on Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab. It received 14 votes in favour, while China abstained.

Washington has been urging the 15-member Security Council for months to ease Syria sanctions. Trump announced a major US policy shift in May when he said he would lift US sanctions on Syria.

“I think he’s doing a very good job,” Trump said later on Thursday of Sharaa. “It’s a tough neighbourhood, and he’s a tough guy, but I got along with him very well. And a lot of progress has been made with Syria.”

“We did take the sanctions off Syria in order to give them a fighting shot,” he told reporters in Washington.

After 13 years of civil war, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December in a lightning offensive by insurgent forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

Formerly known as the Nusra Front, HTS was al Qaeda’s official wing in Syria until breaking ties in 2016. Since May 2014, the group has been on the UN Security Council’s al Qaeda and Islamic State sanctions list.

Several HTS members are also under UN sanctions - a travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo. Those sanctions on Sharaa and Khattab have now been lifted.

UN sanctions monitors have seen no “active ties” this year between al Qaeda and HTS, according to a UN report seen by Reuters in July.