Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former al-Qaeda leader who is now Syria’s de facto president, is expected to travel to New York City in September to address the UN General Assembly, Reuters reported on Monday.
According to The Cradle, Sharaa will become the first Syrian president to address the General Assembly since 1967. He will participate in the General Assembly week, which is scheduled to begin on September 22.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the US is hoping to have a security deal between Israel and Sharaa’s government to announce by the time of the General Assembly.
Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, has been embraced by the Trump administration, which recently lifted sanctions on Syria and revoked the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation for Sharaa’s group of jihadists that took power in Damascus, known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), despite repeated massacres of minorities by HTS-affiliated forces.
In May, President Trump met with al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia and praised the former al-Qaeda leader, calling him a “young, attractive guy” with a “strong past.”
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, where he 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 HTS, which took power in Damascus in December 2024 after ousting former President Bashar al-Assad.
