Why it matters:
Al-Julani, now the President of the Syrian Transitional Government, was previously one of al-Qaeda’s commanders in Syria, and the United States had placed a $10 million bounty on his capture. After the September 11 attacks, the U.S. designated al-Qaeda as its “primary enemy.”
The big picture:
Following the first visit of a U.S. delegation to Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, Barbara Leaf, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and senior American diplomat, told Al-Julani on Friday, December 20, 2024, that Washington has decided to cancel the $10 million reward for his capture and welcomed the “positive messages” from their talks, including his pledge to combat terrorism!
Flashback:
On September 11, 2001, the United States — primarily New York City and Washington, D.C., as the U.S. narrates, 19 Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes.
What happened:
- Two planes were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing both towers to collapse.
- A third plane hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
- The fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to retake control from the hijackers.
Casualties: Nearly 3,000 people were killed, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in history.
Who was behind it: The attack was orchestrated by al-Qaeda, a militant Islamist group led by Osama bin Laden. The group cited U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East as one of its motivations.
The big picture:
The U.S. in October 2019 claimed it had killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Idlib during a complex operation with Turkey’s assistance. As it claimed that it had killed Usama Bin Laden, the ringleader of Al Qaeda in May 2011.
State of play:
Al-Julani has become Ahmad al-Shar’a, the President of Syrian Transitional Government, and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has become As’ad al-Shibani, Syria’s Foreign Minister.
Zoom in:
Who is Al-Julani: Until 2015, Julani was a disciple of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and a student of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the Daesh terrorist group in Iraq and Syria.
- In 2015, Abu Mohammad al-Julani founded Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda.
- Later, at the request of Turkish MIT intelligence officers and CIA and Mossad spies, he formed a coalition with extremist and opposition Syrian groups under the name Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in 2019.
- Ahmad al-Shar’a has now in 2025 shed the name Abu Mohammad al-Julani and reintroduced his original name, Ahmad al-Shar’a, into the media.
- He has also taken off his military uniform, donned a suit, and is presenting himself as a media-savvy intellectual, carving out a space for himself among the press and public opinion.
Earlier, 2019 was the year Trump announced the assassination of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi!
The bottom line:
Both Al-Julani and his defense minister al-Baghdadi are present in New York. Still we should wait to see whether or not they receive new regional directives from the White House.
Go Deeper:
U.S. Diplomat Reveals Story of Jolani's Rebranding
- Mojtaba Darabi
