Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammed al-Julani)
Commander of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led the fall of the Assad regime in 2024, leads Syria's transitional phase
From al-Qaeda leader to president of Syria's transition — the first effective head of state after Assad.
Ahmed al-Sharaa (born Ahmad Hussein al-Sha'ar, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani) was born in 1982 CE in Riyadh, to a Syrian family displaced from the occupied Golan Heights. He grew up in Damascus and studied at its university before travelling to Iraq after the 2003 Iraq War.
In Iraq he joined al-Qaeda; US forces arrested him and imprisoned him for several years. After his release he was sent to Syria as the revolution erupted, where he founded Jabhat al-Nusra (2012) and pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda's emir Ayman al-Zawahiri, becoming one of the most prominent armed-faction leaders of the civil war.
In July 2016 he announced the severance of Jabhat al-Nusra from al-Qaeda under the name Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, and on 28 January 2017 the group merged with other factions to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). In 2019 he incorporated other factions in Idlib and imposed full control of the area. He became de facto "Amir of Idlib", with a civilian, judicial, and security administration.
On 27 November 2024 HTS, in coordination with the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, launched a surprise offensive on Aleppo. Aleppo fell within days, then Hama and Homs, and on 8 December Damascus fell without a fight — the next day the fall of the Assad regime was announced.
On 10 December 2024 al-Sharaa declared himself leader of the transitional phase and tasked Mohammed al-Bashir with forming a "salvation government" in Idlib before relocating it to Damascus, and on 29 January 2025 he was formally declared president of the transitional phase. On 14 May 2025 he met US President Donald Trump in Riyadh — the first meeting between a Syrian and an American president in a quarter century — as part of sanctions relief and the international opening to the new government.
His main challenges:
- integrating the various opposition factions under a unified authority
- disarming the SDF and integrating them into a new Syrian army
- transitional justice after 13 years of war
- managing foreign influence (Russian, Iranian, Turkish, American)
Ahmed al-Sharaa is considered the first effective head of state in post-Assad Syria — and one of the most controversial figures in contemporary Syrian history.
“Syria is for all Syrians.”
