Is the new president of Syria an American ally or enemy?

President Donald Trump met the new leader of Syria, Ahmed Al-Sharra, with the aim of forging a new relationship with the country, the first time that an American president has met his leader for decades. But what kind of relationship the United States will have with a person that they once called an Al Qaeda terrorist remains uncertain.

“We live in a very unusual world where sudden people who have professed hatred of the West and in particular of the United States are now accepted as allies and potential partners,” said Sajjan Gohel, director of international security for the Asia Pacific Foundation.

Al-Sharaa, whose war name is Abu Mohammad al-Julani, has long been on American radar because of its associations with the old branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria, its efforts to unite this faction (called the “Nusrah front”) with the ISIS, and its initial introduction to the United States when it was taken care of in Iraq.

Al-Sharaa promised an allegiance to Al-Qaeda as part of the Iraq insurrection in 2003 and was imprisoned in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. During the nearly two decades that followed, he moved his allegiances and alliances to direct Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), who, after years of dead end, overthrew the Assad regime last December, according to the declarations and published experts of Al-Sharaa in the region.

Her dress has gone to wear military fatigue surrounded by weapons, to a simpler military uniform, and now to business costumes standing side by side with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and President Trump, according to photos accessible to the public.

Now the United States asked him to recognize Israel, to deport Palestinian terrorists, to tell foreign fighters to leave Syria and to help the United States arrest all Islamic State resurgence in the region. The United States has a history of negotiation over time with leaders once considered by the United States government as terrorists or associated with terrorists, from OLP Yasser Arafat to the chief of Sinn Fein Gerry Adams.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

Jonathan Schanzer, executive director of the Defense for Defense of Democracies, said that the United States had raised sanctions against Syria too quickly. “It was too early,” he said in a Social media message. “Not known enough.”

But the States of the Persian Gulf, and some officials of the Trump administration, see the new president of Syria as a leader who can finally provide stability to a country which has been a source of regional instability for years. They are ready to play that the Syrian president performs his promises to avoid a return to dictatorship and civil war, according to experts.

The Saudis say they are ready to cancel the debt unanswered from Syria to international institutions and Qataris have promised to pay the wages of civil servants in the country.

Experts wonder what version of Al-Sharra will direct Syria and if his choices for his office prefigure discriminatory policies against women and minorities in his country.

“The best analogy to describe Al-Sharaa is that he is like a transistor radio, that he can settle his message,” said Gohel. “He can leave to engage with jihadists who fear getting closer to the West and he can also rotate the people of the West who have concerns about his associations with the jihadists.” A commitment to Al-Qaeda

The first presentations of Al-Sharaa in the United States in the Middle East took place in 2003 when he traveled from Syria to Iraq before the American invasion. According to public archives and its own declarations, Al-Sharaa was recovered by the Iraqi authorities during the Second Gulf War.

He was imprisoned in the notorious of Abu Ghraib prison at the same time as Omar al -Baghdadi – the Islamic Head of State, now deceased – has also been detained there.

This arrest came, according to Al-Sharaa, after promising allegiance to Al-Qaeda and was part of the Iraqi insurrection against American forces. In the end, he fell under the command of Abu Musab al -Zarqawi – the famous terrorist leader who was responsible for the death of more than 700 Americans in Iraq (according to the previous reports of NBC) with many lives lost against bombing.

After leaving Iraq, Al-Sharaa spent time fighting

In an interview in 2021 with a documentary filmmaker broadcast on “PBS FrontlineAl-Sharaa spoke of September 11 and what he felt after the attacks. Abu Mohammad al-Jolani | Front line

“First of all, anyone who lived in the Islamic world, in the Arab world at the time that it was not happy, would lie to you,” he said, “because people felt the injustice of the Americans in their support for the Zionists, their policies towards Muslims in general and their clear and strong support of the tyrants in the region.”

He added: “But people regret the murder of innocent people, for sure.”

A new Syria

Since taking power, Al-Sharra has promised that the minority groups of Syria, in particular women, Christians and Alawites, would be protected by his government.

“Ahmed al-Sharaa’s optics is a lot,” said Gohel, adding: “He tried to frame his regime as favorable to women’s rights, he is eager to obtain specific perceptions of his intentions considered to be acceptable to the west.”

But a careful examination of the people he chose for management positions and their opinions raise questions about the severity of these efforts, according to experts.

When HTS took power for the first time in Syria, Gohel said there were no single women in management positions until Al-Sharaa appoints Aisha al-Dibs to be the head of women’s affairs, she is also the only Christian in government.

A Minister of Education, however, was accused of having instituted a policy that would represent the historical women of the rising not as people who lived but as fictitious characters. Another Minister of the Government of Al-Sharaa has a history of conviction to deaths to death on allegations that they have made blasphemous statements.

“There are people in his administration who are extremely misogynist,” said Gohel.

Based on his experience in the study of hundreds of terrorist attacks and terrorist groups around the world, Gohel said that the misogyny tolerance of Al Sharaa does not take the efforts to fight terrorism well.

“Any entity that does not condemn misogynist practices or allows misogyny to be part of the state apparatus will not be allies to the effort to combat terrorism,” he said.

Schanzer, from the Defense of Defense of Democracies, said that the issues are enormous. If Al-Sharaa can stabilize Syria, it could help Syrians, the region and the United States, if not, Syria could reappear as a major security threat.

“If things go wrong, Schanzer said:” Today, has paved the way for a state of Muslim jihad-djihad at the heart of the Levant. »»

Syrians ID, the region and the United States if

T, Syria could reappear as a major security threat. Things are bad, ” Schanzer said“Today?

proven the way to a jihad state to the Muslim Brotherhood in the heart of the Levant. »»

All-Sharaa will help the United States fight Isis

A reading of the White House of Trump’s meeting with Al-Sharaa on Wednesday suggested that for the relationship to strengthen the United States would like to see the Syrian helping US Count-terrorism efforts.

Syria still has detained camps filled with a large number of Islamic State prisoners. The leaders of the fight against American terrorism and Euopan would like to see them imprisoned and monitored so that the Islamic State has no resurgence in Syria and in the region and again puts attacks in the West.

The United States also asked that Al-Sharaa expelled foreign fighters, according to the white house memo.

The question for Al-Sharaa and for the United States, that’s right that these foreign fighters should go.

“I am really concerned about this dynamic of foreign hunting,” said Gohel.