The Leader Behind the “Biggest Plot Twist in History” Is About to Step on the U.N. Stage

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On Wednesday, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will deliver remarks to the world at the United Nations General Assembly, marking Syria’s first presidential address there in nearly 60 years—an end to decades of diplomatic isolation. Yet the mere return of a Syrian leader to the world stage is not the most astonishing part of his appearance.

Once a radical Islamist with ties to al-Qaida and ISIS, Sharaa broke with jihadist networks in 2016. Sharaa “then began steering toward the West,” write Patrick Haenni and Jerome Drevon in their new book Transformed By the People. The book makes the persuasive case that Sharaa was forced to bend to local, less radical sensibilities in Idlib when he formed the Syrian Salvation government in 2017, seven years before he came to power in a stunning, lightning military campaign this past winter. The authors call it “the revenge of society”—ordinary Syrians pushing back until the movement itself was reshaped. This transformation is what the world will witness when Sharaa attends the United Nations on Wednesday. Sharaa already stunned the world in late 2024 when he swept into Damascus at the head of an Islamist coalition just as Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year-old regime collapsed. His 11-day campaign ended Syria’s 14-year civil war, a conflict that had ravaged society, displaced millions, and drawn in regional powers.

Since then, Sharaa has recast himself with startling speed as a statesman. Out went the fatigues, in came tailored suits and a neatly trimmed beard. He has shown himself to be media-savvy, which has included the introduction of his wife, Latifa al-Droubi, on his first official visit to Saudi Arabia and Turkey, while his government has included women in senior posts. Most Syrians cheered the end of the Assad family’s 50-year dictatorship, and exiles began planning returns after Sharaa’s victory.

“This is the biggest plot twist in history,” is how Syrian journalist Loubna Mrie described the recent changes in Syria. After years of repression, many welcomed the new leader, and she noted a new pragmatism. “Whoever is in power and allows me to visit my relatives, I am going to be OK with that,” she told me. But now expectations are mounting, she added. Can Sharaa keep hard-liners in check, and can he govern a country far larger and more fractured than the rural province that once shaped him?

For all the handshakes and the photo ops, Sharaa remains under U.N. sanctions that include a travel ban. His presence in New York was made possible by an intervention from Washington as part of a broader reset after Assad’s downfall. On the sidelines of the General Assembly, he is expected to meet U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

It’s been a bumpy road since the fall of the Assad regime, according to Ryan Crocker, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria. The shift rattled old power brokers. He remembers the mood in Doha at a high-level conference as Sharaa’s forces seized Damacus. “It was fascinating to just see it play out,” recalled Crocker, who witnessed Iranian and Russian alarm. Even Turkey, Sharaa’s longtime backer, was caught off guard. Foreign minister Hakan Fidan, Crocker said, “was just pissed—what was this upstart doing with their money?”

Yet most of the region has now settled into an uneasy acceptance. He may have a militant past, said Crocker, “but he’s still better than Hafez or Bashar al-Assad.”

Jordan’s former foreign minister Marwan Muasher noted the practical mood: “Maybe Syria can become a trade route again. Maybe some refugees will go back. Maybe the Captagon trade will be diminished. Most of the Arab world sees no alternative. We need to work with him.”

Indeed, one of Sharaa’s first moves was an assault on the production centers and the distribution routes of Captagon, a synthetic amphetamine. Captagon was part of a drug empire that bankrolled Assad’s inner circle, with a major role for Assad’s brother, Maher al-Assad, who headed Syria’s fourth army division, which was heavily implicated in the drug’s production and distribution.

“Yes, we are seeing evidence that Captagon is very much being disrupted in Syria,” said Caroline Rose, a political analyst at New Lines Institute who has done extensive research on the Captagon trade. “It’s a very concrete way of moving Syria out of the Assad era, as well as also making goodwill with its neighbors.”

Eight months into his rule, Sharaa enjoys a fragile honeymoon abroad, but his gravest challenges are at home. More than 90 percent of Syrians live in poverty. Health and education systems are collapsing. Government and army salaries go unpaid. He has yet to present a road map to address poverty, social injustice, or accountability for past crimes and new ones.

President Donald Trump lifted some key U.S. sanctions in June, hailing a path toward “stability and peace.” It was a triumph for the new Syrian leader, but lifting sanctions is only one step in jumpstarting the economy, said historian Amr al-Azm, a former professor at Damascus University who is currently teaching at Shawnee State University in Ohio.

“Long-term investments require stability. There is no stability,” he said.

Indeed, sectarian violence is flaring again.

A series of deadly clashes has wracked the country, including armed attacks on the Alawite minority in the coastal region in March. Then over the summer, in the southern province of Suweyda, Bedouin militias attacked the Druze minority (and not for the first time sparked direct military involvement from neighboring Israel, which is home to a sizable Druze community). These outbreaks of sectarian violence have raised persistent questions about Sharaa’s ability, and more important, his willingness to protect Syria’s religious minorities. His vows of protection have been met with skepticism and likely played a role in stalling an agreement with the Kurdish minority to integrate their heavily armed militias into the Syrian army.

“Now, the question is: Can he hold on to power and can he transform and move Syria to the next level, which is the state level, to get the factions integrated into the state?” said Azm. After 50 years of Assad family rule, “Syrians don’t have a strong sense of national identity beyond the lip service we pay to it.” Identity, Azm said, comes from town, tribe, or sectarian identity, which adds up to a factionalized country.

When Sharaa steps to the lectern in his debut at the United Nations on Wednesday, his message is likely to be a plea for patience and support as he steers Syria away from unrest and toward statehood. The outcome remains uncertain.

“We don’t see the shape of the new Syria because there is no new Syria that is coherent enough to see,” said Crocker. “If it ever does settle, it’s probably going to be a multiyear process, and we’re still at the very beginning.”

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