Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s debut at the United Nations this week was met with fascination, excitement and optimism, even as Syria’s road to fully joining the international community is fraught with pitfalls.
On Wednesday, al-Sharaa became the first Syrian head of state to address the U.N. General Assembly in nearly 60 years, presenting his new government as triumphing over a murderous dictatorship, but needing global support to rebuild after decades of repression and violence.
“Syria has transformed from an exporter of crisis to an opportunity for peace, for Syria and the region,” the interim president said.
Al-Sharaa’s historic trip to New York underscored his own transformation from militant to statesman, after leading the revolution to oust longtime Syrian strongman Bashar Assad in December.
“I think right now, Syria is the country of the hour. Ahmed al-Sharaa is the man of the hour,” said Kenneth Pollack, vice president for policy at the Middle East Institute (MEI). The think tank, which is based in Washington, D.C., hosted al-Sharaa for an invitation-only panel discussion in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, drawing nearly 300 people, exceeding the capacity of the venue.
The day before, al-Sharaa had filled the main stage at the Concordia Summit at the Sheraton Hotel in Times Square. Dozens of attendees watched from the overflow room to hear firsthand how a man — once jailed by American forces in Iraq for his membership in al Qaeda — had become the revolutionary hero of his country.
“What a leader needs is optimism, a deep belief that you are defending a noble cause,” al-Sharaa, speaking softly in Arabic, said in conversation with Ret. Gen. David Petraeus, the former CIA director who had commanded U.S. forces in Iraq.
While al-Sharaa technically remains a designated terrorist in the U.S., both former President Biden and President Trump have moved toward engagement.
In December, Biden withdrew a $10 million bounty for al-Sharaa’s arrest, and Trump announced in May he would move to lift all U.S. sanctions on Syria. The Trump administration has also moved to lift the terrorist designation on al-Sharaa’s militant group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.
Al-Sharaa’s main message to audiences in New York was that he is determined to bring Syria back into the international community after 60 years of isolation. But he warned progress is nearly impossible if wide-ranging U.S. sanctions, under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, are not fully lifted. By law, Trump is only allowed to waive the sanctions six months at a time. Advocates argue a full repeal is necessary to give businesses confidence to invest in the long term.
“The Caesar law that was pushed by the American Congress on the former regime, because it had tortured and violated human rights on its people, it had committed many violations against the Syrian people, but this is the former regime,” al-Sharaa said at the Concordia Summit.
“This is the past. So, therefore, these sanctions have to be lifted.”
Some groups are arguing any sanctions relief should be paired with safeguards.
“Any easing should be conditioned on measurable commitments,” the Alawites Association of the United States, a group of Alawite Syrians in the U.S. advocating for minorities in Syria, said in a statement.
The group listed the need for protection and representation for minorities, peaceful relations in the region, ending support for terrorist actors, removing foreign fighters from state institutions, investigating and prosecuting human rights abuses and defeating ISIS and other terrorist groups.
“We recognize the symbolic importance of Syria’s return to the U.N. stage after decades of absence. However, words must be measured against deeds, especially regarding the protection of ethno-religious communities, including Alawites, Druze, Kurds and Christians,” the group said.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) is at the forefront of the movement in Congress to repeal Caesar sanctions, likely to be included in the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which is expected to be passed in December.
While advocates for repeal are raising alarm that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is seeking to keep Caesar in place, Shaheen told The Hill last week that a bipartisan agreement had been reached.
Al-Sharaa tempered expectations around the pace of repairing his country. He was pressed on how he would ensure security in a country traumatized by nearly 14 years of civil war, decades of repression and recent outbursts of devastating sectarian violence.
“A lot of my friends that went back to Syria, they were a little bit concerned about security. They say the whole area is still not stable,” said Reham Sannoufi, 52, who traveled from her home in Canada to attend the MEI event with the Syrian leader.
“As a Syrian, we are extremely excited about the new phase that the country is going to go through. We know that it’s coming out of huge damage, and nobody should expect that it’s going to be fixed overnight. It takes time.”
Sannoufi’s excitement at seeing the president matched the energy in the room at the MEI event, which was made up of high-level business executives in the Syrian diaspora community, veteran diplomats, Middle East policy professionals and journalists.
While the conversation was not allowed to be recorded, one woman was seen holding up her phone to transmit al-Sharaa’s remarks through Facetime, with excited faces, young and old, seen on the screen gathered around the camera.
Hind Kabawat, appointed by al-Sharaa as Syria’s minister of social affairs and labor, and the only woman in the Cabinet, accompanied the Syrian delegation in New York and told The Hill that the trip is one of “victory” for their revolution.
“We’re here to send a message of love, about friendship, that Syria, we’re inclusive, we want to have a new beginning,” she said.
She reinforced the need for sanctions relief to help a population in which 90 percent of Syrians are living below the poverty line. Lifting sanctions would help “all segments of the Syrian people from all their religions and ethnic groups to live in peace,” Kabawat said.
“Because civil peace needs economic stability, economic stability can be when you lift the sanctions,” she added.
With backing from the U.S., al-Sharaa is trying to establish ties with Israel as the ultimate symbol of transformation, moving beyond the armistice from the 1973 war between the two countries, and ending its reputation as a haven for terrorist groups that Israel views as a threat.
Speaking from Damascus last week, al-Sharaa told reporters a border deal with Israel could be announced “within days.” But in New York on Tuesday, he accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “stalling.”
“We said that Syria is not going to pose any threat to any country, including Israel,” he said at the MEI panel. “We are scared from Israel. We are worried from Israel. It’s not the other way around.”
In the meantime, the Syrian leader said he’s not closing the door on relations with any countries, including U.S. adversaries like Russia — which aided Assad in bombing and killing civilians in Syria — and Iran, which used the country as a transit corridor to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“When it comes down to Iran and Hezbollah and Russia, in general the nation has to work in a strategic manner and it should not be one of reaction,” al-Sharaa said at the Concordia Summit.
“Syrian sovereignty will take priority, and its stability and its security. On that we build partnerships with different countries around the world,” he continued.
“Syria needs reform, needs rebuilding and that rebuilding will take a long time. Therefore, it is important to keep calm and stable relationships with the international community and the regional community as well.”
Al-Sharaa further addressed his plans for building a representative and inclusive government, with respect for, and protection of, religious and ethnic minorities, and holding perpetrators of crimes under the Assad regime to account.
“We are going at a really fast speed in comparison to what really took place in Iraq or what happened in other nations like Germany [after World War II] … and also the French. They needed many long years after the French Revolution to reach stability,” he said.
“In comparison to these experiences, we are going at a fast speed,” he said, adding that preparations are underway for parliamentary elections, but he noted the “transitional period” for the government is expected to last five years.
Pollack, of the MEI, described al-Sharaa’s appearance in New York as “a remarkable opportunity” to convince skeptics and reassure supporters that he is the man to transform Syria.
“It may be that there will be more opportunities like this in the future, none of us can say for sure,” he added. “But the real danger, of course, is that this may be the only moment when he’s got the chance to do so. When you’ve got a moment like this, you don’t want to squander it.”
