Syria's Ahmed al-Shara transformed himself from an al-Qaeda member to the president of Syria, in a dramatic political rise that was crowned yesterday with a meeting with United States President Donald Trump.
The meeting in Saudi Arabia marks a turning point for the man who joined al-Qaeda in Iraq during the 2003 US invasion and spent years in a US prison there before returning to Syria to join the rebellion against Bashar al-Assad.
The meeting, which followed Trump's announcement that he would lift U.S. sanctions on Syria, is a huge boost for Shaara as he tries to consolidate control over the divided country and revive its economy, according to Reuters. Trump has said he wants to normalize relations with Damascus and has called on Shaara to normalize relations with longtime foe Israel.
“He has potential, he’s a real leader,” Trump told reporters on the plane after meeting with Shara, whom he described as “a young, attractive guy with a very strong background.” “He has a real chance to hold it all together,” Trump added.
Shaara seized power after his Islamist fighters launched an offensive from their enclave in the northwest in 2024 and ousted Assad, whose allies, Russia and Iran, were then busy with other wars.
He was long known as Abu Muhammad al-Golani, his nom de guerre while he was the commander of the al-Nusra Front, a rebel group that fought against Assad and was for years the official wing of al-Qaeda in that conflict.
He severed ties with al-Qaeda in 2016, gradually reshaping his group as part of the Syrian revolution rather than a global jihad.
Shaara entered Damascus in December 2024 as the de facto ruler of Syria, promising to replace Assad's brutal police state with an inclusive and just order.
Among the priorities he listed were reunifying Syria, reviving an economy choked by sanctions, and placing weapons under state control. His administration has received significant support from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
However, he faced difficulties in fulfilling these goals, as armed groups did not surrender their weapons, sanctions remained in place, and sectarian killings left minority communities fearful of his rule.
Israel, claiming that Shaara remains a jihadist, has declared southern Syria off-limits to its forces. Israel said the strike near the presidential palace in Damascus on May 2 was a warning that it would not allow Syrian forces to deploy south of the capital.
The challenges were clear in March, when Assad's supporters attacked government forces in the coastal region, sparking a wave of revenge killings in which Islamist gunmen killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite minority, to which Assad himself belongs.
This has heightened fears about the jihadist origins of the new Syrian government, despite Sharia's promises of tolerance and accountability for the killings committed. Fears of a return to authoritarian rule have been further reinforced by an interim constitution that grants Sharia sweeping powers, Reuters points out.
Shara described Assad's defeat as a God-given victory.
He avoided directly answering reporters' questions about whether Syria should implement Islamic Sharia law, saying that was a question for experts. He cited revolutionary legitimacy as the basis for his appointment as interim president. He said elections would be held, but that Syria would need up to five years to organize them properly.
Shaara was born in Saudi Arabia, where he spent his early years before moving to Syria. His father was an Arab nationalist, an ideology that conflicted with Shaara's political Islam.
The United States designated Sharrah a terrorist in 2013, stating that al-Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad's rule and establishing Islamic Sharia law in Syria.
In a 2021 interview with the American public service PBS, Shaara said that he was strongly influenced by the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising against Israeli occupation, which began in 2000.
When asked about his stance on the September 11 attacks at the time they occurred, Shaara said: “Anyone in the Arab or Islamic world who says they were not happy would be lying to you, because people felt the injustice that the Americans were doing with their support for the Zionists, with their policies towards Muslims in general, and with their clear and strong support for the tyrants in the region.”
"But people regret the killing of innocents, that's for sure," he added.
The al-Nusra Front has never posed a threat to the West, he said.
Despite its ties to Al Qaeda, Nusra was seen as relatively lenient in its treatment of civilians and other rebel groups compared to the Islamic State.
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