On Wednesday, President Trump met with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the founder of al-Qaeda in Syria, who became the country’s de facto leader after his rebranded group of jihadists, known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), took power in Damascus in December 2024.
Trump said he had a “very good” meeting with Sharaa, who was previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. “Young, attractive guy, tough guy. Strong past, very strong past — fighter. He’s got a real shot at holding it together,” Trump said on Air Force One.
The president met with Sharaa in Saudi Arabia with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before heading to Qatar. The meeting came a day after President Trump announced that he would lift sanctions on Syria.
US sanctions on Syria were imposed to aid in the regime change effort against former President Bashar al-Assad and have had a devastating impact on the civilian population. Sanctions imposed under the first Trump administration in 2019, known as the Caesar Act, were designed specifically to prevent the country’s reconstruction.
Since Assad was ousted on December 8, there have been growing calls in Washington for the sanctions on Syria to be lifted, even though the country is now led by a former al-Qaeda leader. As part of the deal for sanctions relief and potential normalization, the US wants Syria to normalize ties with Israel and crack down on Palestinian resistance groups.
It remains unclear if Israel will go for a normalization deal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials celebrated the regime change and even took credit for it, but have used the alleged threat of the HTS-led government as a pretext to invade and occupy more territory in southern Syria.
According to the White House, during the meeting with Trump, Sharaa “recognized the significant opportunity presented by the Iranians leaving Syria, as well as shared US-Syrian interests in countering terrorism.”
Sharaa said he was committed to the 1974 Syria-Israel disengagement agreement, which Israel broke by invading southern Syria. He also said he hoped that “Syria would serve as a critical link in facilitating trade between east and west, and invited American companies to invest in Syrian oil and gas.”
Sharaa got his start with al-Qaeda in Iraq, where he fought an insurgency against US troops before being imprisoned from 2006 to 2011. In 2012, he travelled to Syria and formed al-Qaeda’s affiliate in the country, the al-Nusra Front.
In 2016, Sharaa claimed the al-Nusra Front was cutting ties with al-Qaeda. At the time, he thanked the “commanders of al-Qaeda for having understood the need to break ties.”
In 2017, Julani merged his group with several other Islamist factions to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which the US State Department designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 2018, and it remains on that list.
While Sharaa now presents himself as a moderate, HTS-affiliated forces have been responsible for the massacre of thousands of Alawites and other minorities since he took power, mainly in the western coastal areas of Syria. Over the weekend, at least 11 Alawite civilians were killed, including two who were reportedly beheaded.
