Syria's standing figurehead, al-Julani. Photo: Khalil Ashawi/Reuters.
Ahmad al-Sharaa met Syrian Jewish leaders after arriving in the US, ahead of the General Assembly meeting
Self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa is in New York to attend meetings of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), the first Syrian president to do so since 1967, Syrian state media SANA reported on 22 September.
The former Al-Qaeda commander is scheduled to deliver a speech to the General Assembly, which will begin its 80th session on 23 September.
“The visit marks a major diplomatic moment for Damascus as it returns to the UN stage at the head-of-state level for the first time after nearly six decades,” SANA stated.
Sharaa is joined on the trip by a delegation of several Syrian ministers and senior officials.
After arriving in New York on Sunday, the Syrian president met with members of the Syrian Jewish community, Israeli media reported.
Hundreds of people attended the meeting, including 11 members of the Syrian Jewish community in New York.
Joseph Jajati, a Syrian-American Jewish businessman, stated that the issue of Israel was not discussed during the meeting.
The countries are in negotiations for a security agreement that would reportedly demilitarize southern Syria, give Israel an air corridor over the country to bomb Iran, and allow Israel to occupy the strategic Mount Hermon on the Syria–Lebanon border permanently.
Sharaa began his militant career as a commander in the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the predecessor to ISIS.
After his release from the US prison in Bucca, Iraq, he was sent to Syria in 2011 by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to found a new wing of the organization, the Nusra Front.
Sharaa later split from Baghdadi and declared allegiance to Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, an alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on Washington and New York who took the leadership of the terror group after Osama Bin Laden’s death.
While labeling the Nusra Front a terrorist organization and offering a $10 million reward for Sharaa’s capture, US intelligence provided covert support to the Nusra Front as part of the CIA’s Timber Sycamore Operation to topple the government of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa and the Nusra Front – later rebranded as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – finally took power in Damascus in December 2024.
The $10 million bounty was quickly dropped, and Sharaa was publicly embraced by UK and US officials. Reports emerged that UK intelligence had been grooming Sharaa to become the next Syrian president for several years prior.
Sharaa met with US President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia in May. Following the meeting, Trump offered kind words for Sharaa, who was known for dispatching suicide and truck bombs to kill civilians in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.
Washington subsequently lifted most sanctions on Damascus in a bid to support Sharaa’s rule.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani traveled to Washington on Thursday to lobby US officials for the removal of the remaining sanctions on Syria.
On Saturday, Shaibani met with members of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
The meeting discussed “ways to promote dialogue and understanding among peoples and cultures,” Syria’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on X.
In March and July, Syrian forces carried out horrific massacres against Syria’s Alawite and Druze religious minorities, killing more than 2,000 civilians.
