Middle EastAnalysis

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani: Profile of the HTS leader

Politicised in 2000 by the second Palestinian intifada, the man who helped get rid of Bashar al-Assad started thinking about ‘defending a people who are oppressed by occupiers and invaders’

Leader of Syria's Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group Abu Mohammed al-Jolani: He has shed his nom de guerre to assume his birth name Ahmed Sharaa to become a normal Syrian citizen rather than a wanted 'terrorist' with a US bounty of $10 million on his head. Photograph: Aref Tammawi/AFP
Leader of Syria's Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group Abu Mohammed al-Jolani: He has shed his nom de guerre to assume his birth name Ahmed Sharaa to become a normal Syrian citizen rather than a wanted 'terrorist' with a US bounty of $10 million on his head. Photograph: Aref Tammawi/AFP
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Michael Jansen
Tue Dec 10 2024 - 16:19

Syrian secularists and religious minorities have been temporarily reassured by proclamations of pluralism and tolerance by the country’s new ruler Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. He heads the Sunni fundamentalist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant faction in the coalition of Syrian opposition forces that swept the Assad dynasty from power.

Jolani has pledged to protect Christians, Shias, Druze and Alawites, announced an amnesty for Syrian army conscripts and declared women could dress as they wished.

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In an interview with CNN, Jolani said, “Syria deserves a governing system that is institutional, where no single ruler makes arbitrary decisions.” He added, “Don’t judge by words, but by actions.” As soon as HTS occupied Damascus, incumbent prime minister Mohammed Jalali was asked to aid the transition, and Syrians were urged not to loot government offices.

Entering the capital on Sunday, Jolani appeared at Damascus’s iconic Umayyad Mosque where he shed his nom de guerre to assume his birth name Ahmed Sharaa to become a normal Syrian citizen rather than a wanted “terrorist” with a US bounty of $10 million on his head.

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This was his latest attempt at reinvention. Jolani (42) chose his alias as his family was driven from the Syrian Golan Heights by Israel in 1967. He was born in Saudi Arabia, where his Arab Nationalist (Nasserite) father Hussein Sharaa had found employment after a spell in prison and time with Palestinian fighters in Jordan.

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During a 2021 interview with the US Public Broadcasting Service’s Frontline news programme, Jolani said he was politicised in 2000 by the second Palestinian intifada. “I started thinking about how I could fulfil my duties, defending a people who are oppressed by occupiers and invaders,” he said.

In 2003, Jolani travelled to Baghdad where he joined al-Qaeda to fight Iraq’s US occupiers. He was held for five years in US prisons where inmates planned for release. His liberation in 2011 coincided with the Arab Spring uprisings across the Arab world. Under al-Qaeda’s auspices, Jolani founded Jabhat al-Nusra, which crossed into Syria and began operations in 2012. Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis) also emerged then, under Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who sought to merge the two jihadi groups but was rebuffed by Jolani. He rejected Islamic State’s proselytising mission and focused on Syria.

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Backed by Russian air power and pro-Iranian militiamen, Syria’s army corralled the armed opposition groups in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province where they received Turkish protection. In January 2017, Jabhat al-Nusra and allies merged to form HTS, which provided utilities, education and healthcare but ruled with a heavy hand. This is unlikely to be accepted by Syrians who have escaped the iron-fisted Assad regime and expect change. UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen pointed out in a CNN interview, “Idlib is not Syria.”