WASHINGTON, USA: Ahmed al-Sharaa has transformed himself from al Qaeda militant to Syrian president in a meteoric political rise that he is set to cap on Monday with a visit to the White House as a guest of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The meeting will be another milestone for a man who joined al Qaeda in Iraq around the time of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and spent years in a U.S. prison there before returning to Syria to join the insurgency against Bashar al-Assad.
The first Syrian head of state to visit the White House since Syria gained independence from France in 1946, Sharaa was long known as Abu Mohammad al-Golani, his nom de guerre as commander of the Nusra Front, an insurgent group fighting Assad and for years al Qaeda’s official wing in the conflict.
He cut ties with al Qaeda in 2016, gradually recasting his group as part of the Syrian revolution rather than global jihad. Ahead of Monday’s visit, the United States removed him from its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
TRUMP CALLS SHARAA ‘A REAL LEADER’
Sharaa swapped combat fatigues for suits and ties after entering Damascus as Syria’s de facto ruler in December 2024, promising to replace Assad’s brutal police state with an inclusive and just order.
He cited priorities including reuniting Syria, reviving an economy choked by Western sanctions and bringing arms under state authority. He won important backing from regional powers Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, before securing Trump’s approval during an unexpected meeting in Riyadh in May.
“He’s got the potential – he’s a real leader,” Trump said at the time, describing him as a young, attractive guy with a very strong past. The Washington trip is Sharaa’s second to the United States as president. In September, he addressed the U.N. General Assembly – the first Syrian leader to do so in decades.
Yet Sharaa has struggled to meet his aims.
While Trump declared an end to U.S. sanctions in May, the toughest have yet to be lifted, pending a repeal from Congress, deterring badly needed investments.
His rule has been shaken by two major eruptions of violence pitting Sunni Muslim fighters loyal to his government against members of minorities, testing his pledge to protect their rights and build an inclusive new order.
In March, more than a thousand Alawites were killed in attacks by Sunni fighters in response to deadly attacks on security forces by former officers loyal to Assad, an Alawite.
In July, more than 1,000 people – most of them Druze – were reported killed in violence that pitted government forces and allied Bedouin fighters against Druze militia in Sweida.
Sharaa has promised accountability over the violence.
Israel, suspicious of Sharaa’s jihadist roots, has declared areas of southern Syria off limits to Syrian government forces. Israel has bombed Syria with the stated aim of protecting Druze, even striking near the presidential palace on two occasions.
Kurdish-led forces in the northeast have also kept their arms, seeking to preserve regional autonomy established during the Syrian conflict. They have accused Damascus of trying to centralise power once more – a fear hardened by a temporary constitution that concentrates power in Sharaa’s hands.
SHARIA LAW
Sharaa characterised Assad’s defeat as a God-given victory and has sidestepped interviewers’ questions on whether he believes Syria should apply Islamic sharia law, saying it was for experts to decide. The temporary constitution has strengthened its role.
He has cited revolutionary legitimacy for his designation as interim president and has said elections will take place, but that Syria needs up to five years to organise them properly.
In an interview at the presidential palace in March, Sharaa underlined his intention to turn the page on Assad’s rule.
“My chest tightens in this palace. I’m astonished by how much evil against society emanated from every corner,” he said.
Sharaa was born in Saudi Arabia, where he spent the first years of his life before moving to Syria. His father was an Arab nationalist, an ideology at odds with Sharaa’s Islamist politics.
In a 2021 interview with the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service’s FRONTLINE programme, Sharaa said he was influenced by the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising against Israeli occupation, which began in 2000.
He returned to Syria from Iraq once the uprising began, sent by the leader of the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State group in Iraq at the time, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, to build up al Qaeda’s presence.
VIEWS ON SEPTEMBER 11
Sharaa gave his first media interview in 2013, his face wrapped in a scarf and showing his back to the camera. He told Al Jazeera Syria should be run according to sharia law.
In his 2021 FRONTLINE interview, he faced the camera in a shirt and jacket. He said the terrorist designation was unfair and that he opposed the killing of innocent people.
Asked about his views on the September 11 attacks at the time they happened, Sharaa said anybody in the Arab or Islamic world who said they were not happy would be lying, “because people felt the injustice of the Americans in their support of the Zionists, their policies towards Muslims in general, and their clear and strong support of the tyrants in the region”.
“But people regret the killing of innocent people, for sure,” he said. The U.S. designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013. Sharaa has said Nusra never presented a threat to the West.
-Tom Perry and Timour Azhari
