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roenxi 16 hours ago [-]
> Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa[g] ... has served as the president of Syria since 2025.
> Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to a Syrian Sunni Muslim family from the Golan Heights, he grew up in Syria's capital, Damascus. Al-Sharaa joined al-Qaeda in Iraq shortly before the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and fought for two years in the Iraqi insurgency. From 2005 to 2011, he was captured and imprisoned by American and Iraqi forces. His release coincided with the onset of the Syrian revolution against the Ba'athist regime of Bashar al-Assad. In 2012, with the support of al-Qaeda's central command, al-Sharaa founded Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as al-Nusra Front, to depose the Assad regime.
You have to jog to keep up with politics in the Middle East.
11 hours ago [-]
MachineMan 14 hours ago [-]
Most of IS is now in Europe. Thanks USA.
Argonaut998 13 hours ago [-]
Europe’s own fault for not protecting their borders.
11 hours ago [-]
cucumber3732842 15 hours ago [-]
I'm sure his CIA handlers showed him an ominous powerpoint of all the Taliban officials circa 2001 and where they are now (hint: basically all dead) and made it quite clear that you don't screw around too much externally if you want to keep your job.
That whole region is a real fucking shame. Iran, Syria, Lebanon, they all could've been doing at least as well as Turkey if history had taken a different path.
11 hours ago [-]
Jamesbeam 13 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
cucumber3732842 11 hours ago [-]
Ok Ben Shaprio.
It takes a "highly inclusive" definition of honesty to spew an appeal to political nuance out of one side of your mouth while simultaneously claiming that because this guy comes from a particular political/religious background he must be bad news. Clearly he's done a lot to stabilize the situation and consolidate power. That necessitates some degree of competence and flexibility to work with potentially conflicting groups and individuals beyond "off with the heads of everyone who doesn't believe what I do" type ISIS crap.
Regardless of how bad this guy's politics are I see no reason to care that some sandbox on the literal other side of the world, one that is particularly irrelevant to the economic interests of my nation, is headed by bad people with values I disagree with.
Of course the US peddles war. That's part and parcel with being the global reserve currency.
If some half baked islamic fundamentalist theocracy crap is the price of local stability that sounds pretty cheap to me, and it probably sounds even cheaper to the people who've had to live with the instability. If Europe has a problem with that in their back yard they can whack him and they can own the quagmire.
Jamesbeam 11 hours ago [-]
I throw punches, I can take some, cowboy.
>That necessitates some degree of competence and flexibility to work with potentially conflicting groups and individuals beyond "off with the heads of everyone who doesn't believe what I do" type ISIS crap.
Well, about that. I have not seen a single man sentenced to death after Islamic law for any of the crimes they committed last year. He might not pull the trigger himself any longer, doesn’t mean he’s less responsible for the ISIS shit happening under his reign.
>If some half-baked Islamic fundamentalist theocracy crap is the price of local stability, that sounds pretty cheap to me, and it probably sounds even cheaper to the people who've had to live with the instability. If Europe has a problem with that in their back yard, they can whack him and they can own the quagmire.
Fair point. But at how many innocent souls do you draw the line?
cucumber3732842 9 hours ago [-]
Given the choice between Tito and the Yugoslav wars everyone would take Tito every time. These sorts of people are Dollar General Tito.
I'm perfectly happy to concede that this guy and his cronies are "bad" and rule with an iron fist and that will cause much bloodshed and suffering. But who isn't in that region? A brutal dictator or theocracy is still better than a slow burn (so like car bombs and AKs not ATGMs and DShk's) religious or civil war.
I don't think the US should be picking sides in these things except in the most obvious and undeniable cases of national interest (and even then I'd rather not, see for example Vietnam). Sell arms to everyone with the money or nobody. My default position is that American interests are best served by commerce, all dollars are green no matter who you are.
Jamesbeam 8 hours ago [-]
You speak like you’ve done your research, made your mind up, and are confident in your conclusion. I respect that, and I would be stupid trying to convince you of something else, because you’re not wrong.
We have common ground and both agree that this is a baddie. I am happy with that.
The rest is just a difference in problem solving.
How do we deal with the baddie?
We both can put a steak on the grill and have awesome steak, even if we would call each other crazy for how the other one might do the grilling.
I am happy I don’t have to make the decision how we deal with the baddies. Something we probably can agree on as well. It’s always easy to mess with the coach if you’re just standing at the sideline with nothing to lose.
iamnothere 13 hours ago [-]
[dead]
wutangson1 16 hours ago [-]
Great news! I'm sure when the students had an uprising (funded by US spy agencies) to overthrow Asad, this is exactly who they wanted- an Al Queda fundamentalist to rule over them! Another win for the West!
orwin 15 hours ago [-]
Please let's wait and see a bit before judging him a 'fundamentalist'.
He joined Al-Qaida when he was young, during the US invasion of Iraq, and spent years in a US prison where he grew his network, link to a particular faction of Al-Qaida that isn't that religious (ok, Islam is weird and way too hard to explain in a digression, let's leave it at 'not that religious' to avoid a 500 lines tunnel).
Kurds were extremely skeptical at first, but it seems at least some are happy with how things are proceeding (they are more involved than expected in drafting the new constitution that will take place in 2030).
It might sadly go to a dual government like Iran use to have before 2026, which is hurting my atheist self, but let's be honest, a dual government in the region is way, way more democracy than expected.
eckelhesten 15 hours ago [-]
Ahhh yes, he was just a little boy. And boys will be boys.
Even when they later go on to create terrorist organizations such as Jabhat al Nusra (Al Nusra Front). Boys will be boys.
Even when he got sent to Syria by Al Qaedas AQI (Which later became ISIS)
It baffles me that people like you justifies this man as a legitimate leader. Kurds and other minorities in Syria suffer immensely from this US and Turkish-forced government.
Why don't you tell the people of HN about the absolute massacre and manhunt of thousands of Alawites after Al-Julani came to power in Syria?
orwin 14 hours ago [-]
He won the civil war, that's where he gets his legitimity. No terrorist attacks since 2015, and even then the terrorist group leaders said it wasn't on their orders. No transnational terrorism is also a good sign. The Kurds were very skeptical a year ago, and probably afraid too, but from the little I heard, they seem relieved about what is currently happening (Lebanese too, I don't have close friends in other related communities). I know the SDF would be a better winner overall, but you have to make with what you get.
Also the Kurd I know have family in the Hatay province and around idil, so he is _very_ confident that economically at least it will be a success.
And like I said elsewhere, you can see the Turkish/ottoman Sunni influence in his religion (in islam culture and religion are extremely close), which is a very good sign. And concerning the massacre: we mostly forgot about Smyrna, and even Dersim isn't cited when we talk about Atatürk (both at least one order of magnitude bigger). It is very sad, but at the time European powers wanted stability in the area, and Atatürk gave them that. I only wish for the war to end and to have the area stabilise, and unlike Iran or even Irak, I see a slight chance that that it might end correctly for the minorities (10%?). Which isn't much, but I would rather wait a year or two before casting judgment.
eckelhesten 12 hours ago [-]
That makes him a defacto leader, not legitimate by any democratic means. He is not chosen by the people, but by external governments such as the turkish dictatorship and the american oligarchic government.
Stability can be achieved without murdering and cleansing out Alawites, Kurds, christians and Druze. Only a barbaric mindset would think otherwise.
And somehow trying to whitewash them with "No terrorist attacks since 2015" shows me that you are clearly of different mindset than me. Have a good day!
imadj 17 hours ago [-]
Many essential tech services like ChatGPT, Gemini, Coursera, Udemy, Stripe and many others are still sadly unavailable to people in Syria even though sanctions have been lifted and the legal barrier no longer exists.
Blazara 15 hours ago [-]
Stretching the definition of the word "essential" there.
usrnm 16 hours ago [-]
Sounds like a perfect opportunity for alternatives (like Chinese models) to move in
coldtea 15 hours ago [-]
They don't have food and safety, ChatGPT, Gemini, Coursera, Udemy, Stripe are way low on their priorities.
imadj 14 hours ago [-]
I'm speaking from first hand experience.
I returned to Syria recently and so did 2 millions in the past 2 years. The country is doing better relatively speaking. It's not a first world country but most people have food and safety, and there's aid organizations to help those in need.
There's no conflation in priorities. Every bit helps. People are trying to start businesses and rebuild the country but this tech blockade contribute to making life harder unnecessarily.
tmp10423288442 14 hours ago [-]
Give them some time - the rescinding of the designation only just happened.
hulitu 11 hours ago [-]
> Many essential tech services like ChatGPT, Gemini, Coursera, Udemy, Stripe and many others are still sadly unavailable to people in Syria
But this is a wonderfull thing.
We really do not need this crap in EU, but here we are, trying to be "independent".
gonzalohm 14 hours ago [-]
Woah, what a loss. I'm pretty sure that's one of the worst problems they are going through as a country /s
fsuts 16 hours ago [-]
Hopefully the Syrian state officials are not corrupt and sign the best deals for the country, rather than siphoning off bribes for themselves and selling Syria to foreign companies who extract egregious profits.
coldtea 15 hours ago [-]
>are not corrupt
They got promoted and de-sanctioned precisely because they are corrupt and worse, actual terrorists.
TacticalCoder 15 hours ago [-]
> Hopefully the Syrian state officials are not corrupt
They're already literally Al-Qaeda islamist terrorists. Imagine if, moreover, they were also corrupt.
Rotten to the core doesn't begin to describe such individuals. They've got buddies at the helm in Iran: they slaughtered 30 000 unarmed civilians and publicly hung athletes... In January 2026.
Wonderful people.
cherryteastain 12 hours ago [-]
> buddies at the helm in Iran
Shows how ignorant you are of the dynamics of the region. Iranian regime belong to the Shia sect, and backed Assad in the civil war. Sharaa/Jolani's faction are Sunnis, principally backed by Turkey. Shia and Sunnis generally dislike and often fight each other.
cucumber3732842 15 hours ago [-]
Religious fundamentalists tend to be less corrupt than whatever your baseline for politicians and rulers is because within their in-groups they're scoring each other based on those ideals. Not to say they won't loot like every other ruling class does, but they're not gonna behave like Saddam (most obvious local comparison point for this subject IMO) and just light money on fire for their own flamboyant luxury.
Their values may be garbage, but that's tangential.
orwin 15 hours ago [-]
Talibans are the obvious counter-example. No, the reason they might be less corrupt than the average dictator in the area is that they seem to have a plan, and until it is implemented, we can expect the leaders to behave.
Also culturally, Syrian are very close to Turks and benefitted a lot from ottoman administration and Sunni legalism, which is a big reason why I believe it is possible for them to have a (mostly) secular government. Sadly I think it is likely they will implement a dual government like Iran had, a theocracy with a democratically elected secular government. Which are more resilient, but bad news overall (still better than Assad regime tbh).
watwut 13 hours ago [-]
> Religious fundamentalists tend to be less corrupt than whatever your baseline for politicians and rulers
Citation and some kind of proof needed here. It is very dubious proposition.
> because within their in-groups they're scoring each other based on those ideals
Their ideals dont tend to be "transparency, anti-corruption and fairness". Those three tend to be fairly low on the list of ideals they score each other on. For example, Iranian regime is considered very corrupt.
> they're not gonna behave like Saddam and just light money on fire for their own flamboyant luxury.
That is just a matter of aesthetics. Not a measure of coruption.
JohnTHaller 7 hours ago [-]
Y'all-Queda making deals with Al Queda would not have been on my bingo card a decade ago
> Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to a Syrian Sunni Muslim family from the Golan Heights, he grew up in Syria's capital, Damascus. Al-Sharaa joined al-Qaeda in Iraq shortly before the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and fought for two years in the Iraqi insurgency. From 2005 to 2011, he was captured and imprisoned by American and Iraqi forces. His release coincided with the onset of the Syrian revolution against the Ba'athist regime of Bashar al-Assad. In 2012, with the support of al-Qaeda's central command, al-Sharaa founded Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as al-Nusra Front, to depose the Assad regime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_al-Sharaa#Split_from_al-...
You have to jog to keep up with politics in the Middle East.
That whole region is a real fucking shame. Iran, Syria, Lebanon, they all could've been doing at least as well as Turkey if history had taken a different path.
It takes a "highly inclusive" definition of honesty to spew an appeal to political nuance out of one side of your mouth while simultaneously claiming that because this guy comes from a particular political/religious background he must be bad news. Clearly he's done a lot to stabilize the situation and consolidate power. That necessitates some degree of competence and flexibility to work with potentially conflicting groups and individuals beyond "off with the heads of everyone who doesn't believe what I do" type ISIS crap.
Regardless of how bad this guy's politics are I see no reason to care that some sandbox on the literal other side of the world, one that is particularly irrelevant to the economic interests of my nation, is headed by bad people with values I disagree with.
Of course the US peddles war. That's part and parcel with being the global reserve currency.
If some half baked islamic fundamentalist theocracy crap is the price of local stability that sounds pretty cheap to me, and it probably sounds even cheaper to the people who've had to live with the instability. If Europe has a problem with that in their back yard they can whack him and they can own the quagmire.
>That necessitates some degree of competence and flexibility to work with potentially conflicting groups and individuals beyond "off with the heads of everyone who doesn't believe what I do" type ISIS crap.
Well, about that. I have not seen a single man sentenced to death after Islamic law for any of the crimes they committed last year. He might not pull the trigger himself any longer, doesn’t mean he’s less responsible for the ISIS shit happening under his reign.
https://www.reuters.com/investigations/syrian-forces-massacr...
>If some half-baked Islamic fundamentalist theocracy crap is the price of local stability, that sounds pretty cheap to me, and it probably sounds even cheaper to the people who've had to live with the instability. If Europe has a problem with that in their back yard, they can whack him and they can own the quagmire.
Fair point. But at how many innocent souls do you draw the line?
I'm perfectly happy to concede that this guy and his cronies are "bad" and rule with an iron fist and that will cause much bloodshed and suffering. But who isn't in that region? A brutal dictator or theocracy is still better than a slow burn (so like car bombs and AKs not ATGMs and DShk's) religious or civil war.
I don't think the US should be picking sides in these things except in the most obvious and undeniable cases of national interest (and even then I'd rather not, see for example Vietnam). Sell arms to everyone with the money or nobody. My default position is that American interests are best served by commerce, all dollars are green no matter who you are.
We have common ground and both agree that this is a baddie. I am happy with that.
The rest is just a difference in problem solving.
How do we deal with the baddie?
We both can put a steak on the grill and have awesome steak, even if we would call each other crazy for how the other one might do the grilling.
I am happy I don’t have to make the decision how we deal with the baddies. Something we probably can agree on as well. It’s always easy to mess with the coach if you’re just standing at the sideline with nothing to lose.
He joined Al-Qaida when he was young, during the US invasion of Iraq, and spent years in a US prison where he grew his network, link to a particular faction of Al-Qaida that isn't that religious (ok, Islam is weird and way too hard to explain in a digression, let's leave it at 'not that religious' to avoid a 500 lines tunnel).
Kurds were extremely skeptical at first, but it seems at least some are happy with how things are proceeding (they are more involved than expected in drafting the new constitution that will take place in 2030).
It might sadly go to a dual government like Iran use to have before 2026, which is hurting my atheist self, but let's be honest, a dual government in the region is way, way more democracy than expected.
Even when they later go on to create terrorist organizations such as Jabhat al Nusra (Al Nusra Front). Boys will be boys.
Even when he got sent to Syria by Al Qaedas AQI (Which later became ISIS)
It baffles me that people like you justifies this man as a legitimate leader. Kurds and other minorities in Syria suffer immensely from this US and Turkish-forced government.
Why don't you tell the people of HN about the absolute massacre and manhunt of thousands of Alawites after Al-Julani came to power in Syria?
Also the Kurd I know have family in the Hatay province and around idil, so he is _very_ confident that economically at least it will be a success.
And like I said elsewhere, you can see the Turkish/ottoman Sunni influence in his religion (in islam culture and religion are extremely close), which is a very good sign. And concerning the massacre: we mostly forgot about Smyrna, and even Dersim isn't cited when we talk about Atatürk (both at least one order of magnitude bigger). It is very sad, but at the time European powers wanted stability in the area, and Atatürk gave them that. I only wish for the war to end and to have the area stabilise, and unlike Iran or even Irak, I see a slight chance that that it might end correctly for the minorities (10%?). Which isn't much, but I would rather wait a year or two before casting judgment.
Stability can be achieved without murdering and cleansing out Alawites, Kurds, christians and Druze. Only a barbaric mindset would think otherwise.
And somehow trying to whitewash them with "No terrorist attacks since 2015" shows me that you are clearly of different mindset than me. Have a good day!
I returned to Syria recently and so did 2 millions in the past 2 years. The country is doing better relatively speaking. It's not a first world country but most people have food and safety, and there's aid organizations to help those in need.
There's no conflation in priorities. Every bit helps. People are trying to start businesses and rebuild the country but this tech blockade contribute to making life harder unnecessarily.
But this is a wonderfull thing. We really do not need this crap in EU, but here we are, trying to be "independent".
They got promoted and de-sanctioned precisely because they are corrupt and worse, actual terrorists.
They're already literally Al-Qaeda islamist terrorists. Imagine if, moreover, they were also corrupt.
Rotten to the core doesn't begin to describe such individuals. They've got buddies at the helm in Iran: they slaughtered 30 000 unarmed civilians and publicly hung athletes... In January 2026.
Wonderful people.
Shows how ignorant you are of the dynamics of the region. Iranian regime belong to the Shia sect, and backed Assad in the civil war. Sharaa/Jolani's faction are Sunnis, principally backed by Turkey. Shia and Sunnis generally dislike and often fight each other.
Their values may be garbage, but that's tangential.
Also culturally, Syrian are very close to Turks and benefitted a lot from ottoman administration and Sunni legalism, which is a big reason why I believe it is possible for them to have a (mostly) secular government. Sadly I think it is likely they will implement a dual government like Iran had, a theocracy with a democratically elected secular government. Which are more resilient, but bad news overall (still better than Assad regime tbh).
Citation and some kind of proof needed here. It is very dubious proposition.
> because within their in-groups they're scoring each other based on those ideals
Their ideals dont tend to be "transparency, anti-corruption and fairness". Those three tend to be fairly low on the list of ideals they score each other on. For example, Iranian regime is considered very corrupt.
> they're not gonna behave like Saddam and just light money on fire for their own flamboyant luxury.
That is just a matter of aesthetics. Not a measure of coruption.