Al-Sharaa, Trump, and Sanctions

Al-Sharaa, Trump, and Sanctions

Contrary to the propaganda of moral upstarts, terrorism pays. It proves rewarding. It establishes states and reconstitutes others. It encourages change, for ill or otherwise. The stance taken, righteously pitiful, on not negotiating with those who practise it, is as faulty as battling gravity. The case of Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is a brilliant example of this. While seen as a new broom that did away with the government of Pre…

Trump’s Embrace of Syrian Leader al‑Sharaa ‘Isolates’ Netanyahu

US President Donald Trump shook hands this week with Syrian leader Ahmed al‑Sharaa, whom Israel has labeled “an al‑Qaeda terrorist in a suit,” reflecting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s growing isolation on the world stage, converging reports indicated. After meeting with Sharaa in Riyadh on Wednesday, Trump commended him as “a real leader with potential.” Saudi officials brokered the meeting as part of Trump’s four-day tour of Saudi Arabia,…

RIAD.— Nothing captured more forcefully the isolation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week than the image of U.S. President Donald Trump, shaking hands with Syrian Islamist leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, a man whom Israel has described as “an Al Qaeda terrorist dressed in a suit.” “He has potential. He is a real leader,” Trump told reporters following talks with Sharaa on Wednesday in Riyadh, a meeting facilitated by his Saudi hosts, …