BURSTDesignated by the U.S. as a terrorist and with a $10 million bounty on his head, Abu Mohammed al-Golani has emerged as the leading figure in Syria’s liberation from the decades-long oppressive regime of Bashar Assad.
He has quickly placed himself at the forefront of shaping the country’s future, with a past that is raising concerns even as much of Syria celebrates Assad’s fall.
Split from al Qaeda
Born in Syria in the late 1970s or early 1980s, al-Golani is promoting himself as a pragmatic, political leader and extending assurances for Syria’s multiethnic and religious populations. These promises run in direct contrast to the violence and human rights abuses carried out by the Islamist groups he aligned with in the past, such as ISIS and al Qaeda.
“No one has the right to erase another group," he said in an interview with CNN in the days before taking over Damascus, the seat of Assad's government.
"These sects have coexisted in this region for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to eliminate them. There must be a legal framework that protects and ensures the rights of all, not a system that serves only one sect, as Assad's regime has done."
While the Biden administration has welcomed Assad’s collapse as an historic, landmark event, U.S. officials have not confirmed it is in touch directly with al-Golani or members of the group he leads, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is also designated as a terrorist group.
Al-Golani, as head of HTS, broke away from its alignment with al Qaeda, but U.S. officials and analysts are closely watching whether actions line up with the public statements.
“We will remain vigilant, make no mistake, some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human right abuses,” President Biden said in remarks from the White House on Sunday.
“We've taken note of statements by the leaders of these rebel groups in recent days, and they're saying the right things now. But as they take on greater responsibility we will assess not just their words but their actions.
'Obsessed' with rule over Syria
Born Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa in Damascus, Syria, al-Golani’s pseudonym is a reference to his family’s roots on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights — signaling one concern from the U.S. and Israel, whether al-Golani and HTS pose a threat to Israel.
Andrew Tabler, senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said HTS and its coalition groups are “much obsessed and inwardly focused” on establishing political rule over Syria.
HTS, at the head of a military coalition including opposition forces and Islamist groups, appear to have control over the western half of the country with the main population centers of Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Homs and access to the Mediterranean Sea. Syrian-Kurdish groups, some backed by the U.S., have control over a smaller part of the country in the east.
“Going forward though, the way that governments in Damascus often legitimate themselves — especially when they are unable to deliver for their people — is they do so through the resistance narrative and through attacking Israel,” Tabler said during a video briefing with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
“The question is whether these groups, whether it's HTS or other Sunni-backed groups, will they resort to this old playbook to get legitimacy and to somehow capitalize on this war with Israel?”
Al-Golani, in a victory speech delivered in Damascus’s historic Umayyad Mosque on Sunday, declared a new chapter in the region where the Syrian people are taking ownership of the country. By Monday, he was holding transitional meetings between Assad’s appointed prime minister Mohammad Ghazi Jalali, and the prime minister of the self-declared Salvation Government — the governing body of Syria’s northwestern Idlib province that HTS controlled for years.
“[Al-Golani’s] got a track record of having a technocratic government that provides minimal services,” said John Hannah, senior fellow with the Jewish Institute for National Security for America and who has served in senior foreign policy positions for both Democratic and Republican administrations.
“[HTS] didn't attack Christians and Druze and other minorities, but didn't make them part of any democratic government, either, they were clearly second class citizens,” he continued.
“But since his descent now into Damascus, all along the road, he's been issuing proclamations to every single minority population he can find that they need to be — as long as they defect from the regime — that they'll be protected, their property, governmental institution should be protected.”
International recognition
In the interview with CNN, al-Golani said his future governance plans for Syria would focus on institutions, when asked if he would impose strict Islamist rule and what an Islamist government would mean for minority groups.
"We're talking about building Syria. HTS is merely one detail of this dialogue, and it may dissolve at any time. It's not an end in itself, but a means to perform a task confronting this regime. Once that task is complete, it will transition to a state of governance, institutions and so on."
Al-Golani said he was never personally involved in acts of terrorism. In 2003, he reportedly traveled to Iraq to fight against the U.S. invasion and spent five years in an American-run prison in the country. Returning to Syria in 2011, he founded Jabhat al-Nusrah to serve as an off-shoot to the Islamic State, but later separated from the group, aligned with al Qaeda for a number of years, before declaring independence as HTS in 2016.
The U.S. listed him as a specially designated national in 2013, a key sanctions designation; and in 2017, the FBI issued a $10 million reward for information on al-Golani’s whereabouts.
"I believe that everyone in life goes through phases and experiences … person in their 20s will have a different personality than someone in their 30s or 40s, and certainly someone in their 50s," al-Golani told CNN in response to a question of his political and military evolution.
"Sometimes it's essential to adjust to reality, and because someone who rigidly clings to certain ideas and principles without flexibility cannot effectively lead societies or navigate complex conflicts like the one happening in Syria."
Hannah said international recognition and overwhelming humanitarian and reconstruction needs to provide an opportunity for the U.S. and other democratic nations to exercise some leverage on the way forward in Syria — where there are concerns over the protection of civilians, but also control over Assad’s chemical and weapon stockpiles.
“Any new government in Syria is going to be desperate for recognition, legitimacy, money, reconstruction help,” he said. “We've got some leverage to at least try and protect, or avoid a bloodbath and absolute chaos and Jihad inside of Syria.”
Recovering from civil war
Nearly 14 years of civil war in Syria has left an estimated 14 million people as either refugees or internally displaced. And the systematic torture and oppression from Assad's regime has had a deep impact on groups like HTS.
“If you look at the foot soldiers of this force [HTS and opposition forces], they’re made up of people who were 10-years-old and six-years-old at the beginning of the revolution in 2011," said Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, who has been in contact with the Syrian opposition for over a decade.
"These little kids that were displaced from Aleppo at 10, 12 years old and coming back and saying ‘we’re coming back to liberate our towns and cities,’ and hugging their grandmas,” he said.
Moustafa has endorsed United Nations Security Council 2254, the 2015 resolution that offered the U.N. as a facilitator in talks between the government and opposition members, but that was blocked by Assad, with support from Iran and Russia.
Charles Lister, senior fellow and director of the Syria and Counterterrorism and Extremism programs at the Middle East Institute, said that HTS and its broader military operations coalition is focused on handling Syria’s political transition internally.
“Their view is that a U.N.-led process designed and determined abroad is unnecessary, and they reject it,” he wrote in an article for Foreign Policy, citing four sources associated with HTS and its allies.
“‘We welcome the international community’s support, but we do not need them to manufacture a process that we are already implementing,’ one of them told me as they arrived in Damascus. ‘We refuse to step into the traps of the past,’ said another.”