6 February 2025

The Right Way to Engage With Syria’s New Rulers

Nafees Hamid, Nils Mallock, Broderick McDonald, and Rahaf Aldoughli

In December 2024, a handful of rebel groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham ousted the brutal dictatorship that had ruled Syria for five decades and set up an interim administration. Now, foreign countries are trying to steer Syria’s new de facto leaders toward an inclusive government free of sectarian reprisals and away from extreme forms of Islamism. The head of HTS and the president of Syria’s transitional government, Ahmed al-Shara, who previously went by the name Abu Mohmmad al-Julani, has publicly endorsed this vision. But many observers remain skeptical of his promises to share power because HTS began as


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