On the menu today: If you’ve wondered why Donald Trump has grown so buddy-buddy with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa since the start of the year, the New York Times revealed a big piece of the puzzle. Apparently al-Sharaa, formerly known under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani and leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, as U.S. designated terrorist group . . . was “discreetly cooperating with the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS and Al Qaeda since he took control of a slice of rebel-held territory in northwestern Syria in 2016.” We can debate how much that makes him “our guy,” but he clearly hasn’t been ISIS’s guy for a long time, as that particular Islamist terrorist group has tried to kill al-Sharaa at least twice this year. And now the U.S. is reportedly in discussions to establish a lasting military presence at a Damascus airbase. Read on.
The Chameleon-Like Abilities of Ahmed al-Sharaa
It’s entirely reasonable for Americans to regard Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa with wariness and suspicion.
As I wrote in my magazine piece about my trip to Syria in the May issue, al-Sharaa has about as notorious a background as any foreign leader on the planet:
That [State Department] warning casually mentions that the “United States continues to designate Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as a terrorist group,” without specifying that the current acting president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, used to run HTS. Up until late December, the U.S. government was willing to pay $10 million for information about his location, because he was on the “specially designated global terrorist” list. Jolani traveled to Iraq in 2003 and joined al-Qaeda; he was later captured and held at Camp Bucca. In 2011, at the start of the Syrian civil war, he formed the Nusra Front as an affiliate of the Islamic State. But Sharaa had a falling-out with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2013, and the Nusra Front split off.
And yet, since his first interaction with Ahmed al-Shara, President Trump has been oddly positive with him.
Back in May, at a U.S.-Saudi Investment Event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Trump said, “I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness.” (For what it’s worth, I thought that was the right move. If we had sanctions on Syria to punish the actions of the Assad regime, and then the Assad regime is toppled, the new regime deserves to be judged by its own actions, not the actions of its predecessors.)
After meeting al-Shara in Saudi Arabia on that trip, Trump told reporters on Air Force One, “Young, attractive guy, tough guy. Yeah, strong fighter, he’s got — he’s got a real shot at pulling it together. I spoke with President Erdoğan, I’m very friendly with him. He feels he’s got a shot, going to give it a try. It’s a torn-up country.”
Earlier this week, for the first time in U.S. history, the White House welcomed the Syrian president for a visit. Raise your hand if you expected the summit to be covered in . . . People magazine:
As Trump, 79, presented al-Sharaa, 43, with a perfume bottle, Trump sprayed the fragrance on the politician, calling it “the best fragrance.”
“And the other one is for your wife,” Trump said, before quickly asking, “How many wives?”
“One,” Al-Sharaa replied.
“With you guys, I never know,” Trump replied.
Later in the day, Trump gushed about him:
He’s a very strong leader. He comes from a very tough place and he’s a tough guy. I liked him. I get along with him, the president, the new president of Syria. . . . We want to see Syria become a country that’s very successful. And I think this leader can do it, I really do. I think this leader can do it. And people said he’s had a rough past. We’ve all had rough pasts, but he has had a rough past, and I think frankly, if you didn’t have a rough past, you wouldn’t have a chance. He gets along very well with Turkey, with President Erdoğan, who’s a great leader. Erdoğan is a great leader and very much in favor of what’s happening in Syria. We have to make Syria work. Syria is a big part of the Middle East. And I will tell you, I think it is working and really well. We’re working also with Israel on, you know, getting along with Syria, getting along with everybody.
The Economist called al-Sharra “Donald Trump’s new bestie.”
You can forgive Trump’s fans, who thought of the American president as a ferocious opponent of militant Islamism, for being bewildered that Trump is growing so buddy-buddy with a former member of al-Qaeda and ISIS.
This morning, the New York Times delivered a scoop that affirmed what some in the Middle East had suspected for a while: Ahmed al-Sharaa’s actions have quietly been more pro-American and anti-ISIS than many realized for a long while:
On Tuesday, Syria’s minister of information, Hamza al-Mustafa, said Mr. al-Shara had recently signed a declaration of political cooperation with the U.S.-led coalition that combats the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
The Syrian leader has been discreetly cooperating with the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS and Al Qaeda since he took control of a slice of rebel-held territory in northwestern Syria in 2016, according to Syrian officials and Western diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with diplomatic protocol.
Since December, Syrian security forces have been cooperating with the global anti-ISIS coalition, according to Mouaz Moustafa, head of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a humanitarian and advocacy group in the United States.
By National Review – https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/syrian-president-ahmed-al-sharaa-american-ally/
