An unexpected alliance is being forged between the United States and Syria, a country that for 54 years was under the thumb of the repressive and adversarial Bashar al-Assad regime.
On November 10, 2025, Syria’s president, Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, was welcomed by Donald Trump to the White House — the first visit by a Syrian head of state since the country gained independence in 1946. In a manner that only Trump can do, he bantered with al-Sharaa, spraying perfume on him while asking how many wives he had. These demonstrations are not only an expression of Trump’s crude sense of humor but also an explicit conveyance to both the American public and the international community that Syria is now under the scope of the U.S. How did one of the most heavily sanctioned countries, whose leaders were wanted for war crimes and terrorism charges, suddenly become warmly received into the Oval Office?
On Dec. 8, 2024, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a religiously aligned group, overthrew the secular war criminal, dictator, and Russian-allied Bashar al-Assad. Given the intricate security apparatus of the Assad regime and its history of political suppression, this agent-contingent revolution was unprecedented, even by experts.
HTS was born in 2017 as an opposition group to Assad. The group went under a series of rebrandings as it meshed with other military and rebel groups, later having various schisms, resulting in HTS as it is formally known today. Al-Qaeda was one of the groups that HTS members had been aligned with before making their split and forming several factions. “Today, HTS maintains that it is ‘an independent entity that follows no organization or party, al-Qaeda or others’ and has gone so far as to arrest al-Qaeda-linked individuals in the territories under its control to prove that no allegiance exists.” Furthermore, “statements and communications from al-Qaeda’s leadership viewed HTS as an independent Salafi-jihadist organization that had illegally broken away from al-Qaeda and shattered its oath of allegiance…Several prominent jihadists left HTS altogether and publicly criticized the group for sowing division.” In 2018, the U.S. designated HTS as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
HTS became Syria’s de facto governing party in December 2024, following its overthrow of Assad and subsequent ending of the 13-year civil war. Al-Sharaa, the group’s leader, was named president during the designated five-year transitional period. The individual who once had a $10 million bounty on his head for his ties to al-Qaeda would begin the process of inching Syria toward a close relationship with the U.S.
Bringing Syria under the U.S. sphere of influence directly aligns with the new government’s goals of attracting foreign investment as a means to improve conditions for Syrians. “We want to rebuild Syria through investment, not through aid and assistance,” said al-Sharaa. Within the first six months of the new transitional government, Syria has attracted $28 billion in foreign investment, a figure al-Sharaa aims to scale. The new government’s focus on bolstering the economy can be greatly expedited with the help of the U.S. Though the U.S. has stripped HTS of its foreign terrorist designation, many prominent states and international bodies maintain this designation, hindering the country from the investment needed for Syria to realize its full potential. The country is also in desperate need of sanctions relief, an initiative which the U.S. has paved the way for other Western powers to follow.
Under Assad’s leadership, Syria was in the Russian sphere of influence, receiving military and economic aid from the Kremlin. This alliance was seen as a blow by the U.S. and other Western powers, as the relationship was believed to be hindering broader cooperation in the region. Now, under the leadership of al-Sharaa, the U.S. has the opportunity to influence Syria politically in a manner that will contribute to broader regional American geostrategic goals — a feat not witnessed in over half a century. The U.S. hopes that nurturing this relationship with Syria will result in less hostility towards Israel, greater pressure against Iran, and the more effective thwarting of terrorist groups, initiatives which Western leaders argue would bring about peace in the region.
Regarding Israel, al-Sharaa has already made strides demonstrating his complicity towards the state’s illegal annexation of the Golan Heights and illegal bombings of Syria following Assad’s ousting. This is not to say he does not care about Syrian territory, but rather that he is choosing strategy over immediate gains. If al-Sharaa is able to forge strong relations with the West, perhaps he can negotiate for something greater, rather than dragging Syria into another armed struggle. Independent of his strategy, his lack of pressure towards Israel is another aspect the U.S. greatly admires about the new president.
While there is lingering hope among Syrians at home and abroad, there remains skepticism about the future of the country. Despite enshrining itself as the only governing party, HTS has yet to suppress opposition gatherings and discourse about other political parties, said Syrian intellectual Yassin al-Haj Saleh at a recent NYU event, a feat unprecedented by Syrians. Though governmental statements have emphasized the importance of Syria’s tolerance towards all ethnic and religious minorities, the few minorities in the temporary parliament of 23 members are rumored to be tokenized, rather than included to promote their interests. There have also been “wave[s] of killings that occurred along the coast in early March, committed by a range of groups organised nominally under the Defence Ministry but in practice operating without real command or control.” Critics have also pointed towards the parliamentary decision made to adopt a new constitution, which consolidates government structure, granting excess power to al-Sharaa. Proponents of the new government voice that this is a necessary step to reforming the government during the designated five-year transitional period, as otherwise, the executive would not have enough power to enact reforms.
While the future of Syria remains politically uncertain, those wishing for improvement in the lives of citizens who have been repressed for decades will have to curb their enthusiasm for the new government as they await tangible action. The U.S.’s role in the matter can be argued to be the direct result of an era where multipolarity seems to be ceasing, and a bipolar global order is on the rise. The U.S. must continue to fight for influence abroad, as it views China as an encroaching threat. Syria, being free after half a century of Russian influence, poses a great deal of opportunity for the U.S. Meanwhile, Syria will adhere to U.S. demands while riding on the resulting legitimacy the U.S. grants it. Resultingly, Syria’s leverage and bargaining power with its neighbors may exponentially increase.
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