Visiting New York City’s memorial to the 9/11 terror attacks is a haunting experience. Two dark squares on the footprints of the former Twin Towers have gentle waterfalls flowing into what looks like an endless abyss. Staring into the inky blackness, one feels the pain and emptiness America felt after losing 2,977 people to al Qaeda terrorists. My uncle was in New York on a business trip days before, scouting out office space on one of the towers. He flew back to our hometown of Vancouver on September 10. I sometimes wonder what my personal family story would be like if events and timing were slightly different. But for many families, and not only American families, 9/11 was a tragic and irreparable turning point.

Imagine what those watching the Twin Towers crumble on their television sets that day would think if they knew, almost 24 years later, the president of the United States would be shaking the hand of the leader of al Qaeda’s successor organization. If they knew the president would be proud to announce millions of dollars in sanctions relief. If they knew the president wanted to give the terrorists a “chance at greatness.”

This is what happened on May 13 and 14. United States President Donald Trump was on a diplomatic visit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. On May 13, he announced the U.S. will be ending all sanctions on Syria. “I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness,” President Trump said at the Riyadh Investment Forum.

The next day, Trump met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa for about 30 minutes. Topics of discussion included Syria recognizing Israel, deporting Palestinian terrorists, and taking control of prison camps holding Islamic State terrorists.

Syria has been on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1979. This mostly comes from Syria’s actions during the Assad regime, which Sharaa and his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (hts) faction overthrew late last year. hts under its old name, the al-Nusra Front, is a listed foreign terrorist organization. hts used to be al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, but it publicly split with al Qaeda years ago. How genuine this split was is murky. Technically, hts no longer exists and has merged with the new Syrian government.

Sharaa promised to transform Syria from the repressive Assadist era into the modern world. In the few months he has been in office, Sharaa has enacted many fundamental changes to Syria. Is it time for America to bury the hatchet and make friends with this al Qaeda-affiliated leader?

Who Is Ahmed al-Sharaa?

Almost immediately after Sharaa ousted Bashar Assad, he started undoing some aspects of the Assadist tyranny. He released thousands of political prisoners from a notorious center in Damascus, evicted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, started outreaches to Europe and preparations for Syrian refugees to return home, and has assimilated other former rebel groups to help run the country.

Sharaa has even updated his personal image as a result of his new status. He is no longer Emir al-Julani (his wartime pseudonym) of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. He is now President Sharaa of the Syrian Arab Republic. Instead of battle gear, he now dresses in Western suits.

This isn’t the first time Sharaa has shifted his position to benefit himself politically. In 2005, he made his second visit to Iraq as an al Qaeda operative. A few months in, U.S. authorities arrested him and sent him to an Iraqi prison notorious for being a major jihadist hub. “As a result,” the Financial Times wrote, “he was able to get close to senior al Qaeda figures. … Soon, he would aggressively lobby them to expand into Syria.” But in 2011, after returning to Syria with other al Qaeda operatives, he reached out to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State, al Qaeda’s competition. Sharaa’s letter, according to the Financial Times, was “pitching his more radical vision for Syria.” Baghdadi complied and supplied him with $50,000-$60,000 per month for about half a year.

In 2013, Baghdadi stated his intention to merge the al-Nusra Front into the Islamic State. Sharaa wasn’t consulted with this, so he cut his links and pledged allegiance to al Qaeda once again. But he cut ties with al Qaeda in 2016 after he saw the link was hurting relations with more moderate rebels. From that time on, Sharaa began appearing more with foreign media and representatives of Western governments to rebrand his movement. “We often discussed human rights, international law, protection of minorities and women,” one official told the Financial Times. “We often disagreed, but … if we discussed prisoners of war in one meeting, the next time, they’d have read up on the Geneva Conventions and showed a willingness to adapt their practices.”

In the years leading up to 2024, Sharaa changed his strategy even further. Instead of pan-national jihadism, he focused on defeating Assad and governing his little corner of northwestern Syria. High-profile terrorist attacks stopped. Some land confiscated from Christians, a minority hts harassed for years, was slowly returned.

James Jeffrey, President Trump’s special envoy to Syria during his first term, began advocating for improving relations with hts. Jeffrey summed up his rationale: “We saw no indication of any support for or conducting of international terrorist operations.”

Sharaa has shown himself to be less ideological than, say, Osama bin Laden. He wouldn’t be compromising on his movement’s cosmetics if that were the case.

But his history shows this is a double-edged sword. He appears more moderate because of his history of flip-flopping. If it seemed like the Islamic State was his likeliest backer, he would try to curry favor with them. When that strategy didn’t work, he pledged allegiance to al Qaeda instead. When this was bringing him too much baggage, he reached out to the West. He often changes his position depending on which outside actor can help him achieve his goals.

And what are his goals?

Live by the Sword

The territories under Sharaa’s control are under Islamist rule. Christians still cannot worship in public in hts-controlled lands. Neither can the Druze, another religious minority. In March, Sharaa’s forces led ethnic cleansing against Alawites, an offshoot of Shia Islam, where hundreds of civilians died at the hands of terrorists.

Sharaa has also been stacking the new government in Damascus with old loyalists from the parts of Syria he controlled before Assad left office. His head of intelligence, Anas Khattab, traveled with Sharaa into Syria in 2011 as a fellow al Qaeda operative. Sharaa also gave his brothers Maher and Hazem senior positions in the government.

Sharaa has a reputation for extreme brutality. As recently as 2023, he undertook a massive purge of his leadership. Many of his former top men were imprisoned and tortured.

Among many high-profile Syrians, according to the Financial Times, “the consensus has been optimistic until recently.” These sources described Sharaa as “pragmatic,” “extremely bright,” “a good listener” and many other things. “But,” the article concludes, “in recent weeks, another word has begun to creep in: ‘strongman.’”

Nobody who joined hts joined it because they supported liberal democracy. There were other Syrian rebel groups they could have joined if that were the case. They joined a jihadist organization because they were jihadists. They joined al Qaeda because they supported al Qaeda’s goals. Even if, hypothetically, Sharaa is having some change of heart, most of his men probably aren’t.

Sharaa’s worldview may be best summed up in his statement during a 2021 pbs interview about his views on the 9/11 terrorist attacks: “First of all, anybody who lived in the Islamic world, in the Arab world at the time who tells you that he wasn’t happy would be lying to you, because people felt the injustice of the Americans in their support of the Zionists, their policies toward Muslims in general and their clear and strong support of the tyrants in the region.”

In the end, a jihadist in a suit is still a jihadist. He may look less scary on the surface. But he has the same worldview.

Is this the kind of person Donald Trump should trust? Does Sharaa have the West’s best interests at heart? Should he receive millions of dollars in sanctions relief?

Betrayal

In 2020, President Trump brokered peace deals between Israel and the Gulf states of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. These were the first peace deals between Arab states and Israel in decades. On the surface, it looked like the Middle East was moving toward peace.

“We all want peace,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in our January 2021 Trumpet issue. “But sadly, these recent peace pacts have a deadly flaw. Biblical prophecy gives us deep insight into these agreements. It actually foretells that moderate Arabs will unite, somewhat like we are now seeing. But they are prophesied not to cooperate with the United States or Israel!”

The prophecy Mr. Flurry referred to is in Psalm 83. It describes an alliance of Middle Eastern peoples forming so “that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance” (verse 4). The “name of Israel” includes the United States. (Request a free copy of The United States and Britain in Prophecy, by Herbert W. Armstrong, for more information.) The alliance’s composition: “the tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assur also is joined with them …” (verses 6-8).

Neither biblical nor secular history has recorded such an alliance, either in purpose or composition. This has led Mr. Flurry to label Psalm 83 a prophecy for our day. He wrote:

The key to unlocking this prophecy is to know the modern descendants of these peoples. And God in this end time has supplied this key. Based on biblical and historical research and with God’s inspiration, Herbert W. Armstrong gave a good general idea of which nations these peoples correspond to today, equating the Ishmaelites with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, the Hagarenes with Syria, the Philistines with the Palestinians; Gebal and Tyre with Lebanon, Moab and Ammon with Jordan, and Edom and Amalek with Turkey. …

Notice too that Assur, or Assyria, is on this list. This refers to modern-day Germany.

Another prophecy shows this alliance will also form in opposition to a radical Islamist bloc led by Iran. (Our booklet The King of the South explains this in more detail.) Syria for years was a close ally of Iran. But because of Bible prophecy, Mr. Flurry predicted Syria would leave Iran’s sphere of influence. With the fall of Assad and the rise of Sharaa, this has happened.

But what happens next?

“While it seems that these nations are moving away from radicalism and violence,” Mr. Flurry wrote, “we must look beneath the surface. After all, this prophecy reveals that they will take ‘crafty counsel’—subtle and shrewd dealing. This sure prophecy shows that these nations will ally to try to blot out the name of Israel forever! That is intense hatred!”

Mr. Flurry wrote this regarding Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, two relatively moderate countries. But Syria is now literally ruled by an offshoot of the same organization that sent the planes into the Twin Towers. If there is one country America should at the very least be cautious of, it is Sharaa’s Syria. Yet this is the regime President Trump is eager to welcome back into the international community.

Common sense alone suggests this is extremely dangerous. Bible prophecy thunders that this will lead to a gigantic curse for America—far larger than the 9/11 terror attacks. But the same Bible promises protection from curses like this for those who turn to God. God would love to give the whole nation such protection. But even if such national repentance doesn’t happen, He still extends the offer to the individual.

To learn more, read Mr. Flurry’s article “Deadly Flaw in Mideast Peace Deals.”