SLP, Mexico-. Abu Mohammed Al-Julani was the leader of the insurrection who overthrew the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad this Sunday. The opponent presents himself as a defender of pluralism and tolerance and has left behind his name of war to take up his own, Ahmad Al-Sharaa.
For years, Al-Julani, who is committed to the construction of a Statehas worked to remake his public image, renouncing his former ties to Al-Qaeda.
The 42-year-old leader has consolidated his power while remaining in Idlib province in far northwestern Syria, when Assad’s hold on much of the country appeared solid.
Al-Julani and his past in Al-Qaeda
In 2003, when the United States deployed its troops to Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Al-Julani crossed the eastern border into the neighboring country to fight the Americans, according to The Country.
It was then that he began his connection with the Iraqi branch of Al-Qaeda. According to the Qatari media Al JazeeraAl-Julani was at the head of Jabhat al Nusra, an armed jihadist group that was organically linked to Al-Qaeda.
The US State Department then announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his capture, stating that his group had “carried out multiple terrorist attacks throughout Syria.”
However, in 2013 he refused to swear allegiance to Abubaker Al Bagdadi (who was at the head of the jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq), and favored the leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman al Zawahiri, with whom three years later he broke ties.
Al-Julani then concentrated his actions on the war against the Syrian army, the confrontation with other rivals and the conquest of the territory around Idlib, Hama and Aleppo.
Since 2016, he has positioned himself and his group as “caretakers” of a Syria liberated from Al-Assad, who brutally suppressed a popular uprising during the Arab Spring in 2011, sparking a long war.
His Government of Salvation
In 2017, after signing alliances with different groups, Al-Julani created the Sunni Islamist organization for the Liberation of the Levant: Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS).
Since then, he led Idlib through the Syrian Salvation Government, whose aim It is to provide civil services, education, healthcare, a judiciary and infrastructure to the people, as well as manage finances and aid distribution.
The toppler of the Syrian dictatorship has spoken of his intention to decentralize power to reflect the country’s diversity.
“Syria deserves a system of government that is institutional, not one in which a single ruler makes arbitrary decisions,” he said in a statement. interview with cnn last week, offering the possibility that HTS could end up dissolving after the fall of Al-Assad.
In that conversation, where he distanced himself from Sunni terrorist groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda, he said: “People who fear Islamic governance have either seen incorrect implementations of it or do not understand it correctly.” He added: “These sects have coexisted in this region for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to eliminate them.”
This Sunday, Al-Julani appeared among the crowd at the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, the Syrian capital.
“Al-Assad left Syria as an estate for Iranian ambitions, and spread sectarianism and corruption,” Al-Julani proclaimed in a speech from inside the temple, where he was received by a crowd of worshipers.
The dizzying advance of the opposition occurred after 13 years of war, which also ended more than half a century of rule by the Al-Assad family.
