A few months ago, Damascus appeared to me like a devoted mother, gazing at her children with a look of both reproach and desperation, lamenting her wounds, humiliation, and suffering—bleeding but bearing the pain with resilience, on the verge of collapse, crying out: ‘Save your nation! Save it before the disgrace of nations befalls you!’
Syrian politician and former rebel commander, president of Syria since 2025
Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa (Arabic: أحمَد حُسين الشرع) (born 29 October 1982) also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani (Arabic: أبو محمد الجولاني) (Also transliterated as Joulani, Jolani, and Golani.) is a Syrian politician and former rebel commander who is currently serving as the president of Syria since January 2025. He previously served as the country's de facto leader from December 2024 until his appointment as president.
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I believe the people of each country are more entitled to stay in their country. Why should people be displaced? Displacing people is such a big crime rejected by the law. In addition, Syria has just come out of war, and it is suffering big burdens. Syria should not be overwhelmed with new problems because we need long years to fix the sixty-year legacy of the regime, let alone having new problems added.
We addressed all the parties, and said that the problem is Syrian, and we should resolve it internally and try to find a proper solution in northeast Syria, according to some basic principles: There must not be any partition of Syria, and we should not cement the idea of partition in any way, shape, or form – not even in the form of a federation. Our society is still not ready to understand the nature of federations, and it will head for partition under the title of federation.