Ahmed al-Sharaa, the Islamic radical who was previously designated a terrorist by the State Department and who founded the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front and now serves as Syria’s president, received a warm welcome on Monday in New York City, just five miles away from where his comrades killed 2,753 people on 9/11.
While al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani or Muhammad al-Jawlani, was in town for the United Nations General Assembly, he also took part in a “fireside discussion” with ex-CIA Director David Petraeus on the sidelines of the general assembly at the 2025 Concordia Annual Summit.
‘Sometimes in a person’s journey, there are some mistakes.’
Ahead of the discussion, Baihas Baghdadi of Baghdadi Capital provided the terrorist with a glowing introduction, painting him not only as a liberator — a characterization that some Syrian Christians and other religious minorities might find questionable — but as “the hero, the man that brought freedom back to Syria.”
Before it was taken down, the State Department’s Rewards for Justice $10 million bounty page for al-Sharaa stated:
Under al-Jawlani’s leadership, ANF has carried out multiple terrorist attacks throughout Syria, often targeting civilians. In April 2015, ANF reportedly kidnapped, and later released, approximately 300 Kurdish civilians from a checkpoint in Syria. In June 2015, ANF claimed responsibility for the massacre of 20 residents in the Druze village of Qalb Lawzeh in Idlib province, Syria.
Al-Sharaa’s terrorist group claimed responsibility for multitudes of other terror attacks throughout Syria, including 600 attacks in its first year of operation, and worked in concert with ISIS.
In 2017, al-Sharaa merged al-Nusra with other Islamic extremist groups to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group that was linked in its formative years to the late leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and was recognized by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization until July.
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Photo by Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Annual Summit
After HTS-led forces overthrew the Assad regime, al-Sharaa took power in Damascus.
“Together, we acknowledge all the sacrifices you have made to return Syria to all Syrians,” Baghdadi said on Monday of the murderous terrorist. “It is our time to ask ourselves what we can do for Syria now that you, Mr. President, brought back Syria to all of us.”
Although Petraeus, the former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan whose extramarital affair blew up his CIA directorship, admitted at the outset of the discussion that he and the terrorist were on different sides during the American surge in Iraq, the retired general similarly characterized al-Sharaa as a liberator.
Al-Sharaa told Petraeus, “We cannot judge the past based on the rules of today, and we cannot judge today based on the rules of the past.”
The terrorist suggested further that his intent has long been to protect and defend people and human rights and to combat “injustice.”
“Perhaps there was some mistakes,” the terrorist said. “Sometimes in a person’s journey, there are some mistakes, but what’s important is to focus on defending people from the threats that they face.”
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Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN,OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images
In addition to reportedly committing scores of massacres since taking power, the supposed humanitarian’s regime has supported some of those Sunni radicals who have in recent months engaged in massacres, bombings, rapes, and kidnappings, including those who executed an American citizen, Hosam Saraya, in July.
Petraeus — who, while CIA director, proposed a covert program of arming radicals like al-Sharaa in Syria in a regime-change operation that became known as Timber Sycamore — said that he felt validated by the terrorist’s rise to power and claimed both that al-Sharaa’s “vision is powerful and clear” and that his success “is our success.”
Al-Sharaa appeared interested in more than just a PR makeover. He impressed upon Petraeus and the audience his desire to see the Trump administration lift America’s remaining sanctions on Syria, namely those under the 2019 Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act.
“Just lift the sanctions, and you will see the results,” al-Sharaa said.
President Donald Trump signed the Caesar Act into law on Dec. 20, 2019. The act imposes sanctions on those who provide various goods or services to Syria, such as aircraft for its military, items on the U.S. Munitions List, and items Trump believed were being used to commit human rights abuses against the Syrian people.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted after meeting with al-Sharaa on Monday that they “discussed implementing President Trump’s historic announcement on sanctions relief and the importance of Israel-Syria relations.”
When pressed for comment about the sanction talks with Syria, a State Department spokesperson told Blaze News that as a general matter, they do not comment on private diplomatic discussions.
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