BEIRUT — As an al Qaeda fighter in Iraq, he was detained by the American military. As the leader of a U.S.-designated terror group fighting in Syria’s civil war, he had a $10 million bounty on his head.
As the leader of a fast-changing Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa shook hands Wednesday with U.S. President Trump, who later described him as a “young, attractive guy” with a “very strong past.”
The handshake, at a meeting orchestrated by the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Turkey, captured Mr. al-Sharaa’s long journey from hardened jihadi to the leader of a country that is gradually shedding its pariah status as it cements ties with America’s top allies in the Middle East.
Mr. Trump said he would lift crippling sanctions that were imposed on the government of deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad, who was overthrown in December, expressing hope that Mr. al-Sharaa, who led the insurgency, can move Syria in a new direction.
“He’s got a real shot at holding it together,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s a real leader. He led a charge, and he’s pretty amazing.”
The news sparked celebrations across Syria, where the economy has been ravaged by 14 years of civil war and international isolation. But Mr. al-Sharaa still faces daunting challenges to building the kind of peaceful, tolerant Syria he has promised.
Before toppling Assad, Mr. al-Sharaa was known by the jihadi nickname he adopted, Abu Mohammed al-Golani. His ties to al Qaeda stretch back to 2003, when he joined the insurgency after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
He helped al Qaeda form an offshoot in Iraq that attacked both U.S. forces and the country’s Shiite majority, often using car and truck bombs. He was detained by the U.S. and held for over five years without being charged.
In his first interview in 2014 on Qatari network Al Jazeera, he kept his face covered and said Syria should be governed by Islamic law, an alarming prospect for the country’s Christian, Alawite and Druze minorities. Mr. Al-Sharaa also said he couldn’t trust Gulf and other Arab leaders who he said had sold themselves to Washington to stay in power.
“They paid a tax, these Arab rulers, to the United States,” he said.
But in the following years, he began rebranding himself and the armed group he led. In 2016, he announced that he had severed ties with al-Qaida. He began appearing in public unmasked and in military garb, and changed his group’s name to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — the Organization for Liberating Syria — as it consolidated control over a swath of northwestern Syria.
His transformation — both political and sartorial — continued in 2021, when he gave an interview to an American network. This time he appeared in a shirt and trousers, with his short hair gelled back, and said his group posed no threat to the West. He also called for the lifting of sanctions on Syria.
After leading the lightning insurgency that toppled Assad, Mr. al-Sharaa promised a new Syria.
But the difficulties have been daunting.
Fourteen years of war left large areas in ruins and, along with the sanctions, devastated the economy. An estimated 90% of the population lives in poverty. Assad’s rule and the civil war also left deep fissures between the country’s Sunni minority and the Alawite minority from which Assad hailed, and which benefited from his rule. Those rifts have proven tough to heal.
Even as he praised Mr. al-Sharaa, Mr. Trump acknowledged the huge challenges he faces.
“I think they have to get themselves straightened up,” Mr. Trump said. “They have a lot of work to do.”
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