{"id":2422,"date":"2025-02-21T07:56:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T06:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/?p=2422"},"modified":"2025-06-10T13:21:32","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T11:21:32","slug":"syrias-new-leader-with-a-background-in-al-qaeda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/syrias-new-leader-with-a-background-in-al-qaeda\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria\u2019s New Leader – with a background in al-Qaeda"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Syria\u2019s New Leader \u2013 with a background in al-Qaeda<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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Syria\u2019s new leader has a background in the terrorist group responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar are now pushing for his recognition as Syria\u2019s legitimate leadership in order to lift the sanctions imposed by the United Nations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ahmed al-Sharaa was responsible for numerous \u201cterror attacks across Syria, often targeting civilians,\u201d according to the U.S. State Department. Now, he is Syria\u2019s president\u2014without any elections having been held. Photo: Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Ministry<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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S<\/span>yria\u2019s Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, who changed his name to Ahmed al-Sharaa after the UN Security Council listed him as an al-Qaeda terrorist in 2013, met with Saudi Arabia\u2019s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in early February on his first foreign trip as president. The Syrian leader visited Saudi Arabia to gain support for his \u201ctransitional government.\u201d Al-Sharaa was accompanied in Riyadh by Syria\u2019s newly appointed Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, one of the founders of al-Qaeda in Syria, where he operated under other aliases.
\nAhmed Al-Sharaa overthrew longtime president Bashar al-Assad on December 8 with the help of Turkey, which also coordinated with Russia and Iran. Since then, the new Syrian administration has been trying to remove Western sanctions against Syria, as concerns over al-Sharaa\u2019s previous membership in al-Qaeda have created uncertainty. According to the Turkey-based social media Clash report, most members of Syria\u2019s transitional government have Turkish citizenship.
\nSaudi Arabia has been active in discussions with Europe and the United States to help lift economic sanctions on Syria. At the end of December, the U.S. withdrew the $10 million reward for information on Al-Golani, who, according to the U.S. State Department, was responsible for numerous \u201cterror attacks across Syria, often targeting civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Invited by Macron<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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French President Emmanuel Macron was the first EU head of state to speak directly with Syria\u2019s Ahmad al-Sharaa. Macron also invited al-Sharaa to Paris for the Syrian leader\u2019s first visit to Europe. The EU has stated that it will ease some of the sanctions imposed on Syria to help the country rebuild after more than 13 years of civil war.
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin also spoke with Syria\u2019s new leader, who ousted Moscow\u2019s close ally Assad in December. A key issue is the future of Russia\u2019s two military bases in the country.
\nDuring the phone conversation, al-Sharaa emphasized \u201cthe strong strategic ties between the two countries and Syria\u2019s openness to all parties,\u201d according to a statement from the Syrian presidential office.
\nAccording to Al Jazeera, Putin sent \u201can official invitation to Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani to visit Russia.\u201d Russia emphasized in a statement its \u201cprincipled position in support of the unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the Syrian state.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Met with Erdogan<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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After his visit to Saudi Arabia, Syria\u2019s new leader traveled to Turkey to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
\nTogether, they discussed \u201cjoint efforts for economic recovery, sustainable stability, and security,\u201d said Erdogan\u2019s spokesperson Fahrettin Altun before the meeting.
\nQatar\u2019s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani visited Damascus at the end of January, becoming the first Arab leader to visit the country since Assad\u2019s overthrow.
\nA few months before Assad fell and the new al-Qaeda-linked leaders took over Syria, new evidence was presented regarding the Saudi government\u2019s involvement in al-Qaeda\u2019s September 11, 2001, attacks.
\nThe FBI identified Saudi intelligence officer Omar al-Bayoumi, according to Dagens Nyheter (DN).
\nFifteen of the nineteen terrorists were Saudi citizens who managed to enter the U.S. due to their own efforts and authorities\u2019 failures, according to DN, which describes how Omar al-Bayoumi had close ties to at least two of the terrorists, as well as to the influential terror propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki.
\nVideo footage released last summer also shows two Saudi diplomats whom the FBI has linked to al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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UN Terror List<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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In July 2013, the UN Security Council\u2019s committee added Abu Mohammed Al-Golani to the sanctions list established by Security Council Resolution 1822 (2008) against al-Qaeda and ISIS due to their terrorist acts that threatened international peace and security.
\nThe sanctions included asset freezes, travel bans, and arms embargoes affecting all individuals and entities on the committee\u2019s list.
\nAbu Mohammed al-Golani (spelled al-Jawlani in UN documents) was listed on July 24, 2013, due to his ties with al-Qaeda. The UN stated in its 2013 announcement:
\n\u201cAbu Mohammed al-Jawlani is the leader of Al-Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, a Syria-based terrorist group\u2026 In 2011, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi instructed Abu Mohammed (the world\u2019s most wanted terrorist, ed.) al-Jawlani to establish a front for al-Qaeda in Iraq in Syria by developing a local presence and fighting. Al-Qaeda in Iraq provided Jabhat al-Nusrah with manpower, money, weapons, and guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Al-Qaeda terrorist changed his name to become Syrian president<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2422"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3090,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2422\/revisions\/3090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}