Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, arrived in New York City on Saturday ahead of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). His visit marks the first time a Syrian head of state has set foot in the United States since Noureddine al-Atassi in 1967.
Since the Assad family seized power in 1970, Syria was consistently represented at the UNGA by foreign ministers or senior officials, with both Hafez and Bashar al-Assad refusing to attend in person and never traveling to the United States. Al-Sharaa’s presence therefore breaks a decades-long pattern and highlights the dramatic political transformation inside Syria since the fall of the Assad government last year.
Accompanying al-Sharaa is Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, another founding member of Syria’s Al-Qaeda branch, along with a number of ministers and senior officials. Reports in both Syrian and American media suggest the delegation’s main objective is to lobby the Trump administration for expanded sanctions relief and potential economic aid.
It has also been widely speculated that al-Sharaa may meet U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UNGA. If confirmed, the encounter would be their second meeting following talks in Saudi Arabia in May.
Al-Sharaa’s trajectory has been anything but conventional. A member of Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi branch during the height of the U.S. occupation, he was captured by American forces in 2006 and spent five years in U.S. military prisons before being released in 2011. He returned immediately to Syria at the start of the civil war, where he established Al-Qaeda’s official branch and steadily expanded his influence. After Assad’s downfall in December, al-Sharaa consolidated control and assumed the presidency, changing his name, his appearance and being presented as a reformed jihadist who now promotes diversity and democratic values.
Now, less than a year after his ascent to power, the man who once carried a $10 million U.S. bounty enters New York as Syria’s recognized leader. His visit underscores a new and unsettled chapter in Syria-U.S. relations, with the former Al-Qaeda commander now sitting in the same halls once closed to his predecessors.