Abu Mohammed al-Golani, extremist leader who launched an astonishing uprising Overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, He has spent years remaking his public image, cutting ties with al-Qaeda and portraying himself as a champion of pluralism and tolerance. Recently, the rebels dropped his name and began calling him by his real name, Ahmad al-Sharaa.
The extent to which he has transformed from a jihadist extremist to someone who aims to build a nation is now being tested.
Rebel forces take control of the capital Damascus President Assad is on the run, but And for the first time after 50 years of his family’s iron hand, how Syria will be ruled remains an open question.
Syria is home to multiple ethnic and religious communities, often at odds with each other due to the Assad regime and years of war. Many of them fear that Sunni Islamic extremists could come to power. The country is also divided by various armed groups, with foreign powers ranging from Russia and Iran to the United States, Turkey and Israel all involved.
Orient TV/Reuters TV (via REUTERS)
Al-Golani, 42, who has been labeled a terrorist by the United States, has not been seen in public since Damascus fell early Sunday. But he and his rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), many of whose fighters are jihadists, could become major players.
Al-Golani has been holed up in northwestern Syria’s Idlib province for years, seeking to consolidate power as Iranian and Russian-backed President Bashar al-Assad appears to be tightening his grip on much of the country.
He maneuvered his way among extremist groups, eliminating competitors and former allies. He sought to burnish the image of a de facto “relief government” that has been running Idlib to win support from international governments and reassure Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities. And he forged ties with various tribes and other groups.
Along the way, al-Golani shed his guise as a hard-line Islamic guerrilla and wore a suit to press conferences, speaking of building state institutions and decentralizing power to reflect Syria’s diversity.
In an interview with CNN last week, he said, “Syria deserves an institutional system of governance, and there is no system of governance where a single ruler makes arbitrary decisions.”After the fall of the Assad regime, HTS hinted at the possibility of their eventual disbandment.
“Judge by actions, not words,” he said.
Al Golani’s beginnings in Iraq
Al-Golani’s ties to al-Qaeda date back to 2003, when he joined militants fighting against U.S. forces in Iraq. A native of Syria, he was captured by U.S. forces but remained in Iraq. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda usurped like-minded groups and formed the militant Islamic State of Iraq, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Radical UGC via AP
In 2011, a popular uprising against Assad in Syria sparked a brutal government crackdown that led to all-out war. Al-Golani’s fame increased when al-Baghdadi sent him to Syria to establish an al-Qaeda branch called Jabhat al-Nusra. The United States designated this new group as a terrorist organization. This designation remains in effect, and the U.S. government has imposed a $10 million bounty on him.
Jabhat al-Nusra and the Syrian conflict
As Syria’s civil war escalated in 2013, so did al-Golani’s ambitions. He defied al-Baghdadi’s calls to disband al-Nusra and merge it with al-Qaeda’s operations in Iraq to form the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Still, al-Golani pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, which later severed ties with ISIS. Jabhat al-Nusra fought ISIS and eliminated many of Assad’s rivals among the Syrian rebels.
In his first interview in 2014, al-Ghorani, his face hidden, told a reporter from the Qatari network Al Jazeera that he had rejected political negotiations in Geneva to end the conflict. He said his goal was for Syria to be ruled under Islamic law, making it clear there would be no room for the country’s Alawite, Shiite, Druze and Christian minorities.
Empowerment and rebranding
In 2016, al-Golani revealed his face to the public for the first time in a video message announcing that the group would rename itself the Syrian Conquest Front and sever ties with al-Qaeda.
“This new organization is not affiliated with any outside organization,” he said in the video, who was photographed wearing military uniform and a turban.
The move paved the way for al-Golani to assert full control over the splintering armed group. A year later, his alliance was renamed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (meaning Syrian Liberation Organization) as the two groups merged to consolidate al-Golani’s power in northwestern Syria’s Idlib province.
HTS subsequently clashed with independent Islamic extremists opposed to the merger, further emboldening al-Golani and his group as the dominant force in northwest Syria, where they can rule with an iron fist.
With his power consolidated, al-Golani began changes that few could have imagined. They replaced military uniforms with shirts and pants and began to advocate religious tolerance and pluralism.
He appealed to Idlib’s Druze community, which Al-Nusra had previously targeted, and visited families of Kurds killed by Turkish-backed militias.
In 2021, Al-Golani gave his first interview with an American journalist on PBS. Wearing a blazer and his short hair tied back with a gel, the HTS leader now says in a softer tone that his group is not a threat to the West and that the sanctions imposed against it are unwarranted. said.
“Yes, we have criticized Western policies,” he said. “But it’s not true that we’re going to start a war from Syria against the United States or Europe. We’re not saying we want to fight.”
