Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
For the first time since 1967, a Syrian President has arrived in New York to participate in the UN General assembly. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa delivered his address on September 24.
On September 24, Syria’s President, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, addressed the UN General Assembly. He called on the U.S. Congress to lift the “Caesar Sanctions” in order to allow Syrians to rebuild the country.
He stressed the importance of signing a security deal with Israel, which benefits both countries. He called for the economic development and unification of all regions of Syria.
He repeatedly called for the “complete lifting of sanctions,” which he said continue to hinder Syria’s recovery and reconstruction efforts.
He stressed the importance of combating terrorism and made clear that Syria would no longer be a threat or staging point for terrorist activities against its neighbors.
Sharaa left Syria in 2003 to fight the American occupation of Iraq with Al Qaeda. He rose within the ranks of terrorism to lead Jibhat al-Nusra, the Al Qaeda branch in Syria. Once the U.S. designated Nusra as a terrorist group, he changed its name of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and consolidated his reign as its leader in Idlib, which was the last remaining armed opposition held territory in Syria. During this period Sharaa used the name Jolani.
On December 8, 2024 Jolani and his coalition of five armed groups overran the Assad forces and the former dictator of Damascus fled. The U.S. envoy to Syria, Barbara Leaf, arrived just days later to remove the $10 million bounty on his head from the U.S. Treasury. He then assumed his legal name, Sharaa.
In May, President Trump met Sharaa in Saudi Arabia, and eventually Trump ordered all U.S. sanctions on Syria to be lifted, to give the Syrian people a chance at an economic recovery, and to rebuild the country after 14 years of civil war.
Sharaa is leading a delegation that includes several ministers and senior officials for high-level meetings at UN headquarters, and is scheduled to meet with a group of Syrian expatriates in the US.
However, not all Syrians in the U.S. are happy with Sharaa’s government. Many had envisioned a free and democratic process in Syria with real elections by the people. Sharaa was not elected by anyone, he appointed himself. The U.N. resolution 2254 called for a transitional governing body, with scheduled elections to decide the leadership, and a new constitution. Syrians following radical Islam are pleased with Sharaa, but those who hold secular views feel cheated.
Trump described Sharaa as “a true leader who led the revolution,” and said he had “a real chance to preserve Syria’s unity.”
Syria’s presence at the U.N. seeks to put Syria back on the international map after decades of isolation. The trip will be a chance for Sharaa to test the waters of whether new bridges can be built with the West.
One issue facing Sharaa are the foreign fighters in Syria, who flocked to Syria from around the world, fighting not for freedom and democracy, but to establish an Islamic state in Syria. They came from Gulf Arab states, Tunisia, Libya, China, other Arab states, Russian North Caucasus region, and the U.S. UK, Europe and Australia.
In 2013, at The Hague, a conference was held entitled “The ‘Exodus’ of European Foreign Fighters to Syria”. The discussion examined the international problem of foreign fighters travelling to Syria.
Participants shed light on the threat to western security by foreign jihadists going to Syria, both men and women, learning skills such as killing and explosives manufacture, and then returning home. Of particular note was the threat to spread Islamic revolution back home.
In June, the New York Times reported on the thousands of foreign fighters in Syria who having toppled the government successfully, planned on remaining in Syria.
Their decision confirms the fact that the Sharaa government has provided a welcoming atmosphere to them, as well as projects an Islamic fundamentalist ideology acceptable to them.
Soon after the Assad government fell, the BBC reported that the Sharaa administration was giving foreign Islamist fighters senior official posts in the country’s armed forces.
The BBC wrote, “The army is being re-organised by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that is now effectively in charge of the country following the overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.”
Senior security positions included Chinese Uyghurs, a Jordanian and a Turkish national, given positions as colonels or brigadier-generals.
Jihadists from abroad were seen as trying to impose their extremist ideology on Syria – something which Syrians from all communities say they will not accept in the country’s future.
Opponents of Sharaa have accused his former group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, of being largely made up of foreign jihadists, but Sharaa has denounced terrorism and wants to lead a unified and secure Syria.
China had stressed that the Syrian civil war demonstrated the dangers of foreign intervention and jihadist militancy.
Beijing had been alarmed that thousands of Uyghurs from the western province of China had traveled to Syria, bringing their families to Idlib to fight for an Islamic state. Now, those Uyghurs of the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) have now been folded into Syria’s new military establishment.
They are being promoted in the security ranks while calling for jihad against China. Uyghurs began arriving in Idlib around 2012–2013, via a clandestine route sponsored by Turkey. Estimates today place the Uyghur population in Syria, including fighters and their families, at up to 15,000.
In August, the UN Syria Commission of Inquiry published a report on the massacres of Alawi people in Syria in early March, finding that war crimes had been committed.
The violence included murder, torture and inhumane acts related to the treatment of the dead, widespread looting and burning of homes all of which displaced tens of thousands of civilians. Videos were filmed and shown on social media, along with footage of civilians being abused and humiliated.
The crimes were perpetrated by members of the Sharaa government’s forces and private individuals operating alongside or in proximity to them, as well as by pro-former government fighters or so-called “remnants.”
The killings were documented across the coast, with men identified as belonging to the Alawi sect and then separated from the women and children before being led outside to be shot and killed.
Bodies were left in the streets for days, with families prevented from conducting burials, while others were buried in mass graves.
Foreign fighters, who had been recently incorporated into the Sheraa government’s security forces, extra judicially executed, tortured and ill-treated civilians in multiple Alawi majority villages and neighborhoods in a manner that was both widespread and systematic, which included targeting based on religious affiliation, age and gender, and collective executions.
Nine months on since the fall of Assad in Syria, China is yet to formally recognize the country’s new government.
In January and April, and again in August, China’s UN envoy Fu Cong publicly warned the Security Council that ‘foreign terrorist fighters’ remain active in Syria and urged Damascus to fulfil ‘counter-terrorism obligations,’ calling out the TIP directly.
A video released by TIP after the fall of Assad’s regime in December 2024 asserted that their primary mission is to ‘liberate the Muslims of East Turkistan from the Chinese occupation’. Beijing maintains that Syria is still in a transition and supports a ‘Syrian-led and Syrian-owned’ political process in accordance with UNSC Resolution 2254.
In March, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced the massacre on the Syrian coast. Rubio condemned “radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis” that carried out the violence, and called for accountability.
Reuters reported in February that Israel was lobbying the United States to keep Syria weak and in chaos.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist.
