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A video of Ahmad al-Sharaa resurfaced, showing him praising 9/11.
In a PBS interview, he expressed happiness over the 9/11 attacks.
Trump met al-Sharaa, praising his potential to lead Syria effectively.
Less than a week after Donald Trump scripted history by rubbing shoulders with former Al Qaeda and ISIS terrorist, now Syrian President, Ahmad al-Sharaa, an old video of the latter has surfaced on social media where he is seen expressing happiness over the 9/11 terror attack in which nearly 3,000 people, mostly Americans, had died.
A clip from his extremely rare 2021 interview to American public broadcaster PBS has been shared widely on social media. His remark expressing happiness over one of the deadliest terror attacks in human history, have been criticized as extremely distasteful and in total disregard and disrespect for the innocent people killed in that attack and the sentiments of those they left behind.
HAPPY TO SEE INNOCENT PEOPLE DIE IN 9/11 ATTACK
Speaking about 9/11 on PBS’ news documentary show ‘Frontline’ in its June 1, 2021 episode titled ‘The Jihadist’, Ahmad al-Sharaa, who back then was known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jawlani, said, “Anyone who lived in the Islamic or Arab world at the time of 9/11, and said he wasn’t happy about it, would be lying.” He said this in response to a question about how he felt personally about innocent people being killed in the terror attack.
What did you think and feel on 9-11?
Jolani: Anyone living in the Islamic or Arab world who tells you he wasn’t happy is lying. pic.twitter.com/wfOZtjIfIs
— Diliman Abdulkader (@D_abdulkader) May 16, 2025
The clip has gone viral after US President Donald Trump met the terrorist-turned-President during his Middle East visit last week, calling him a “young, attractive, and tough guy” with a “very strong” past.
TRUMP LAVISHES PRAISE
Besides showering compliments, President Trump also backed the former terrorist and said he believes that the “young man” has a lot of promise. He has a “real shot at doing a good job” in war-ravaged Syria, Mr Trump said, as he announced a reward for the new Syrian President and the people of Syria by “lifting all sanctions” which had been in place for nearly five decades (since 1979).
President Trump has been facing a fair bit of flak back home by allowing a US, as well as UN-designated terrorist, who had a $10 million bounty on his head till as recently as December, to hobnob with the President of the United States. All this was seen by geopolitical analysts as Donald Trump’s volte-face after his numerous social media posts stated that the United States of America has “no interest in Syria”.
President Trump has also been praised, mostly by the Arab world, for his decision to lift all sanctions imposed on Syria – a move that will benefit more than 90 per cent Syrians currently living in poverty. It will also enable greater engagement by agencies providing aid, while also encouraging foreign investment and promoting trade in the West Asian nation.
JOURNEY FROM GLOBAL TERRORIST AL-JAWLANI TO SYRIAN PRESIDENT AL-SHARAA
Over the last two decades al-Jawlani, now al-Sharaa held key positions in global terror organisations like Al Qaeda and ISIS. According to the United Nations Security Council’s ‘ISIS and Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee’, in July 2013, Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani was declared a global terrorist.
Considered one of the ‘most wanted’ terrorists globally, al-Jawlani used to coordinate directly with former Al Qaeda chief Aiman al-Zawahiri and later with former ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (who also went by the name Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali Al-Badri Al-Samarrai).
In 2011, the year of the uprising in Syria against the Russia and Iran-backed Assad regime, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi instructed Al-Jawlani to establish a front for the Al Qaeda in Iraq and Syria by developing a local presence.
In 2012, Al-Jawlani founded the Al-Nusrah Front (also known as Jabhat al-Nusrah), officially known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham – a UN-designated terrorist group which officially became Al Qaeda’s offshoot in Syria. By now, the uprising in Syria, which began in 2011 with peaceful protests, had turned into a revolution, with mass protests against the Ba’athist dictatorship of then President Bashar al-Assad.
In 2017, the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham rebranded itself as the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham or HTS. Its principal objective was to overthrow the Assad regime led by Bashar al-Assad and establish an Islamic Caliphate.
Over the years, the revolution in Syria turned into an armed conflict, before escalating into a full-blown civil war, slowly gaining ground across the country. In November 2024, in a sudden and massive offensive, spearheaded by Al-Jawlani’s HTS, the Assad regime rapidly lost major ground, including its stronghold cities.
On December 8, 2024, Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia and the Assad regime collapsed after 53 years of ruling the country with an iron fist. Moscow could not come to Bashar Assad’s rescue in Syria because most of Russia’s military was committed on the Ukrainian front. HTS chief Al-Jawlani declared victory, and was appointed interim President of Syria in January. He then officially assumed his current name Ahmad al-Sharaa.