Taking the stage at a political forum in New York City for an interview, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and retired four-star United States General David Petraeus have acknowledged the peculiarity of the situation.
Al-Sharaa, who overthrew former President Bashar al-Assad and ended his family’s 50-year rule of Syria in a blazing military offensive late last year, has been president since January.
Petraeus commanded US forces during their invasion of Iraq – forces who captured and imprisoned al-Sharaa from 2006 to 2011 for fighting against the invasion. Petraeus later served as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
After his release, al-Sharaa established the al-Nusra Front in Syria in 2012 to fight al-Assad. Four years later, it severed its ties with al-Qaeda. A year later, al-Nusra merged with other groups to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by al-Sharaa.
HTS was designated a “terrorist organisation” by the US in 2018, citing past ties to al-Qaeda, a designation the US revoked in July as Washington softened its approach to post-Assad Syria.
The US had placed a $10m bounty on al-Sharaa’s head, lifting it only in late December.
Al-Sharaa arrived in New York on Sunday to attend the United Nations General Assembly, the first Syrian head of state to do so in almost six decades.
The president and his large delegation held meetings, including with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the leader addressed events on the sidelines of the General Assembly on Monday.
With Petraeus, he then participated in the 2025 Concordia Annual Summit, a global affairs forum held alongside the General Assembly that brings together world leaders, business executives and NGO figures to foster public-private partnerships and dialogue.
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