How Ahmed al-Sharaa Reshaped Syria’s Leadership

Syria  Just a year ago, the war in Syria seemed firmly in the control of President Bashar al-Assad. Today, the country’s reality has been dramatically inverted: Assad is in gilded exile in Russia, and his successor as Syria’s interim president is Ahmed al-Sharaa, the man formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

Sharaa, whose nom-de-guerre reflects his family roots in the Golan Heights, led his militia, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), in a lightning-fast offensive that saw government troops “melt away,” culminating in the rapid capture of Aleppo and the final storming of Damascus. This starkly contrasts with the brutal, years-long sieges that marked the earlier phases of the war, where Russian airpower was decisive for the regime.Now established in the presidential palace—a symbol of the former regime’s “all-seeing power”—Sharaa is focused on shedding his former identity as a senior al-Qaeda and Islamic State commander.

He is undertaking a calculated campaign to present himself as a pragmatic leader capable of governing for all Syrians, including the country’s spectrum of religious sects (Sunnis, Alawites, Druze, and Christians). This campaign has found some success abroad: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince arranged a meeting between Sharaa and US President Donald Trump, who later called him a “young attractive tough guy.”However, the transition is fraught with domestic challenges.

Sharaa’s authority does not extend to the north-east, which is controlled by Kurdish forces, or parts of the south where Druze minorities seek a separate state backed by Israel. Alawites, Assad’s minority sect, fear repeat massacres, and Christians struggle to overlook Sharaa’s jihadist past.

In an interview following the fall of the regime, Sharaa, having discarded his combat fatigues for a smart jacket, insisted that his new administration would govern for all Syrians, stating the country was exhausted by war and posed no threat to the West.

This ideological pivot has earned him enemies on both sides: Israel has dismissed his assurances, while jihadist hardliners, particularly a weakened Islamic State (IS), have branded him a traitor and an “apostate” for agreeing to join the US-led coalition against IS. IS social media channels continue to accuse him—without proof—of being an agent of Western powers. Despite recent small-scale IS attacks on government-controlled cities, analysts indicate IS’s presence in Syria remains severely weakened.