If, just a few months ago, one had tried to sketch out the best plausible scenario for Syria, it would have looked much like what we see today: the replacement of former President Bashar Al-Assad by an apparently reformed Sunni jihadist able to command respect from the men with guns while at the same time calling for religious tolerance and a pragmatic approach to neighbors.
Why, then, is the neatly groomed and besuited Ahmed al-Sharaa making so many people so nervous? Should he be trusted? Or, more importantly, helped? The short answers are, in order of asking: For good reason, no, and yes. But getting to each is far from simple.
Al-Sharaa is better known as al-Jolani, the name he took when he fought alongside Islamic State in Iraq and went on to run al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria. But he no longer uses his nom de guerre and recently sketched out plans for Syria in a remarkably measured interview with the........