Amoral embrace: On the U.S. and the Syrian President

For Ahmed al-Sharaa, the founder of al-Qaeda’s Syria branch, and now the President of Syria, his recent visit to the White House has marked a remarkable turnaround in his career. From commanding an outfit responsible for suicide bombings and targeted killings, and carrying a $10 million bounty on his head, Mr. Sharaa, who until recently was known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, is now a very close partner of Washington. After their meeting, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he “gets along with him”. In December, only weeks after Mr. Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) toppled the secular Ba’athist regime of President Bashar al-Assad and seized Damascus, the U.S. lifted the bounty on the former jihadist commander. Earlier this week, Mr. Trump granted Syria wide exemptions on sanctions, and pressed Congress to repeal a 2019 law that imposed harsh penalties on the country, while Syria promised to join the war against the Islamic State. Mr. Sharaa has also signalled his desire to improve ties with Israel, America’s closest ally in West Asia, even as Israel grabbed more Syrian territories in the Golan region after Mr. Assad’s fall. Reports suggest the U.S. is preparing its presence at an airbase in Damascus as it brokers a Syria-Israel security pact. The message is clear: Syria, under Mr. Sharaa, seeks entry into the U.S.-led regional order, and Washington is reciprocating enthusiastically.

While allowing a country of 25 million people battered by western sanctions, foreign interventions and civil war, to join the regional economic mainstream is welcome, what troubles many is Mr. Sharaa’s not-so-distant past. He was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s choice to open al-Qaeda’s Syria branch. He split with Baghdadi when the latter founded the Islamic State in the early 2010s, and remained loyal to Ayman al-Zawahiri’s al-Qaeda. Mr. Sharaa began to distance himself from al-Qaeda only after his forces captured Idlib, which became the hub of anti-Assad factions. As the ruler of Idlib, he maintained close ties with Türkiye. In November 2024, his HTS launched a rapid offensive against the Syrian army, which was badly hurt by Israeli bombings, and captured Damascus. Soon after, he was embraced by regional and western governments alike. While Mr. Sharaa has promised to build an inclusive Syria, the country has witnessed at least two massacres against minorities — against Alawites and the Druze. His attempts to centralise power through sham elections have deepened sectarian divides. Transnational jihadists within the HTS continue to operate freely. But the U.S., once vocally concerned about the human rights situation in Syria under Mr. Assad, appears to have given a free pass to Mr. Sharaa. If he is rehabilitated without accountability for his past and scrutiny of his present rule, Syria’s wounds will remain unhealed, keeping it on the brink for years to come.