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Trump’s invitation to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to the White House is a windfall for the former Al-Qaeda leader and a victory for the global jihad. Al-Sharaa has now walked away with a deal that likely surprises even him. He has been escorted into the Western fold with recognition as a legitimate dignitary, no longer sanctioned, and has even signed on to the global coalition to defeat ISIS.
It is critical to review the background of al-Sharaa (known in his days as a jihad leader as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani) to appreciate the significance of his meeting with Trump — at the White House, no less.
Al-Sharaa led the jihad group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTM), which was responsible for former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s fall. The process “essentially began in July 2011, when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi—then the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), previously known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI)—sent Abu Mohammed al-Jolani to spearhead his group’s entry into Syria.” Al-Jolani would later become the head of HTS, change his name to Ahmed al-Sharaa, and put on a suit to appeal to naive Westerners. He has done extraordinarily well, given how seasoned he is not only at violent jihad, but at stealth jihad as well.
In April 2013, al-Baghdadi released an audio statement reaffirming that al-Jolani’s Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) group was part of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). Al-Baghdadi also announced that the two “would henceforth be collectively known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).” Here you can see that Al-Jolani is no different than the savage al-Baghdadi. But al-Jolani ended up double-crossing al-Baghdadi. Within days, al-Jolani rejected the union of JN and ISI, and instead, he “pledged continued allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.” This became a critical juncture: the battle for preeminence between Sunni jihadist groups in Syria was on.
In February 2014, al-Qaeda formally disassociated itself from ISIS. Just a few months later, ISIS stormed into Mosul, and Baghdadi announced the restoration of the Islamic caliphate under his leadership.
In January 2017, al-Jolani’s Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) adopted the formal new name Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) “as a vehicle to advance its position in the Syrian insurgency and further its own goals as [al-Qaeda’s] affiliate in Syria.”
HTS finally overthrew al-Assad in December 2024; in doing so, it had strong backing from Turkey. The prior leader of HTS had already begun a public relations facelift for the group. Abu Jaber Shaykh, who preceded Ahmed al-Sharaa as senior leader of HTS, declared that the purpose for which HTS was formed was “to safeguard the gains of the revolution and the land that was liberated with the blood of thousands of martyrs.” He also declared HTS to be the merger of all opposition factions; all others were “dissolved and disintegrated.” His declaration was intended “to distance HTS from the legacy of al Qaeda’s official arm,” which he and others (including Ahmed al-Sharaa) now argue “no longer exists.” Abu Jaber Shaykh succeeded, and this brought about a unified “blessed revolution” to topple Assad’s regime. He stated that his “brothers” in HTS were at “the forefront of the Syrian jihad,” and warned “all Sunnis in Syria of the dire circumstances they would face should the war be lost.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who provided military and logistical backing to HTS, also called the new Syrian leadership his “brothers.”
Nothing has changed about al-Sharaa. He is a seasoned jihadist who is dedicated to regional dominance, and will manipulate a stealth strategy in his war as long as doing so helps him attain his goals. The State Department designated al-Jolani as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) in May 2013, offering up a $10 million bounty on him. But now it has removed that bounty, and al-Jolani is being embraced in the White House. Never mind the ongoing abuse of minorities in Syria and his threat to Israel, which prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to issue a stern statement last year about Israel’s determination to defend its security amid the Turkish-supported Syrian siege.
In an additional benefit to al-Sharaa, the US has now waived sanctions, and Trump vowed “to do everything he can to make Syria successful” after meeting al-Sharaa. Al-Sharaa has also now achieved Syria’s signing on to a political cooperation declaration with the global coalition to defeat ISIS, which is ridiculous given al-Sharaa’s past brief alliance with and then jihadist competition with the Islamic State. The Coalition, which began in 2014 with 12 original members, now has 89 members “to combat ISIS in Iraq, Syria, and globally.” Unfortunately, numerous ISIS affiliates have continued to emerge, despite the coalition. For example, in Afghanistan there is ISIS-Khorasan, and there are other ISIS affiliates in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to the Washington Institute, “the coalition has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in stabilization assistance annually, adding up to billions of dollars invested” between 2019 and 2024. This large sum of money is going toward meeting “critical needs” in both Syria and Iraq.
The Washington Institute continues:
It addresses vulnerabilities previously exploited by ISIS and closes gaps in local needs, including for essential services, education, community reintegration, and accountability for the organization’s heinous crimes.
Now think about al-Sharaa’s history, his leadership of al-Qaeda in competition with the Islamic State, and the money that will flow to him as part of the global coalition to defeat ISIS. Al-Sharaa doesn’t care about the spread of jihad per se; he’s a jihadist himself, but he does care about keeping ISIS at bay, given his historic conflict with the group . Al-Sharaa is an untrustworthy force in the coalition. Meanwhile, his domestic forces continue to persecute Christians, as jihadists usually do:
Syrian Christians and Alawites are being slaughtered in Syria by soldiers of the ISIS/AlQaeda terrorist government. The death toll is 1800 in just the last few days, with many victims still missing. Entire villages are being slaughtered by these terrorist govt forces. These… pic.twitter.com/Gm0YVlg9VM
— Iraqi Christian Foundation (@iraqschristians) March 8, 2025
Violent jihadists rule Syria. Upon the collapse of Assad’s regime, Israel thus immediately set up a defense perimeter, despite the unreasonable demands and objections of its Arab neighbors, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, as well as those of the UN, which condemned Israel for a supposed “dangerous land grab in Syria.” Of course, it was not a land grab, but about protecting the Jewish state from more jihadist attacks.
Whatever the reason for welcoming former al-Qaeda commander al-Sharaa to the White House, it is an insult to the massive number of victims that al-Sharaa and his forces murdered, assaulted and pillaged. The manipulative al-Sharaa is a jihadist who has managed to pull off a substantial victory, not only for himself personally, but for the global jihad. Although jihadist leaders will be more careful on Trump’s watch, since he’s certainly no easy pushover, what will happen beyond 2028, given Trump’s emboldening of al-Sharaa, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood support from Qatar and Turkey?
