BEIRUT (AP) — Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the militant leader whose stunning insurgency toppled Syria’s President Bashar Assad, has spent years working to remake his public image, renouncing longtime ties to al-Qaida and depicting himself as a champion of pluralism and tolerance. In recent days, the insurgency even dropped his nom de guerre and began referring to him by his real name, Ahmad al-Sharaa.
The extent of that transformation from jihadi extremist to would-be state builder is now put to the test. Insurgents control capital Damascus, Assad has fled into hiding, and for the first time after 50 years of his family’s iron hand, it is an open question how Syria will be governed.
Syria is home to multiple ethnic and religious communities, often pitted against each other by Assad’s state and years of war. Many of them fear the possibility Sunni Islamist extremists will take over. The country is also fragmented among disparate armed factions, and foreign powers from Russia and Iran to the United States, Turkey and Israel all have their hands in the mix.
The 42-year-old al-Golani -- labeled a terrorist by the United States -- has not appeared publicly since Damascus fell early Sunday. But he and his insurgent force, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS – many of whose fighters are jihadis -- stand to be a major player. For years, al-Golani worked to consolidate power, while bottled up in the province of Idlib in Syria’s northwest corner as Assad’s Iranian- and Russian-backed rule over much of the country appeared solid.
He maneuvered among extremist organizations while eliminating competitors and former allies. He sought to polish the image of his de-facto “salvation government” that has been running Idlib to win over international governments and reassure Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities. And he built ties with various tribes and other groups.
Along the way, al-Golani shed his garb as a hard-line Islamist guerrilla and put on suits for press interviews, talking of building state institutions and decentralizing power to reflect Syria’s diversity. “Syria deserves a governing system that is institutional, no one where a single ruler makes arbitrary decisions,” he said in an interview with CNN last week, offering the possibility HTS would eventually be dissolved after Assad falls.
“Don’t judge by words, but by actions,” he said.
With his power consolidated, al-Golani set in motion a transformation that few could have imagined. Replacing his military garb with shirt and trousers, he began calling for religious tolerance and pluralism. He appealed to the Druze community in Idlib, which the Nusra Front had previously targeted, and visited the families of Kurds who were killed by Turkish-backed militias.
In 2021, al-Golani had his first interview with an American journalist on PBS. Wearing a blazer, with his short hair gelled back, the now more soft-spoken HTS leader said that his group posed no threat to the West and that sanctions imposed against it were unjust. “Yes, we have criticized Western policies,” he said. “But to wage a war against the United States or Europe from Syria, that’s not true. We didn’t say we wanted to fight.”
Who is Abu Mohammed al-Golani, The Leader of the Syrian Insurgency? | AP News
You don't have to trust him, I certainly have strong doubts but this may be the best chance Syria has at some sort of stability, I say we at least try to see if his actions match his words and if not, at least we tried, if they do then that'd be a good thing, I think a little hope is better than just assuming it will always be shit and there's nothing that can be done to improve things and we should get in there before bad actors like Russia and Türkiye continue to manipulate the situation for the worse as they've done for years already.
Lets say he is being genuine and Syria would change for the better but America and Europe continues to be like "nah fuck off" then it'll just drive them once again into the arms of tyrants like Putin when they feel they have no other choice but to work with whoever they can get. Of course he could turn out to be a tyrant himself once he consolidates power and then we can cut ties but I fear if we don't try and we're wrong about this it could backfire on us once again and lead Syria down yet another dark path because we didn't give them a chance.
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