It is both tragic and absurd that Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa now issues decrees banning Syrians he labels as “supporters of terrorist organizations” from running for parliament. The irony is staggering: a man who once topped the world’s terrorism list, with a $10 million bounty on his head, now presumes to decide who qualifies as a terrorist.
The irony of shame! Al-Sharaa has either forgotten, or deliberately ignored, that his own group, Jabhat al-Nusra, along with its offshoots fromal-Qaeda and ISIS, represents the very core of global terrorism. Yet today he postures as a “guardian of political morality,” punishing those who resisted ISIS and defended Suwayda, while overlooking his own crimes and those of his factions that soaked Syrian soil in blood.
Al-Sharaa’s history is written in massacres, and even a brief record is enough to convict him:
- Qalb Lawzeh massacre (2015): Dozens of Druze civilians executed in cold blood.
- Kafraya and al-Fu‘ah siege (2016–2018): Thousands of civilians starved to death, alongside systematic killings of women and children.
- Idlib and Hama countryside: Bombings, executions and sectarian violence.
- The Sweida massacre (2025): By opening corridors for ISIS and allied Bedouin tribes, he enabled the slaughter of more than 1,000 civilians, most of them women and children.
Such atrocities alone are sufficient grounds for an international tribunal, not for political promotion.
In al-Sharaa’s distorted worldview, those who sought to forbid Syrian bloodshed are branded as criminals, while those who legitimized the killing of Syrians outside his factions are suddenly recast as “patriots” with a “national project.” This perverse inversion of morality undermines any notion of justice or accountability.
Munir DahirWhat al-Sharaa presents today is nothing more than a performance, an attempt to launder his blood-stained hands through hollow decrees. He may don a suit and speak the language of politicians, but beneath the tie remains a war criminal, a terrorist in every sense.
Al-Sharaa is merely a rebranded version of ISIS, the other face of the same coin. The real travesty lies in a murderer masquerading as a judge, and a terrorist pretending to be a lawmaker. But history is unforgiving: the blood spilled in Sweida, Idlib, Hama and Qalb Lawzeh will remain an eternal testimony.
A man who profits from blood cannot build a homeland, and one who has sold his conscience can never represent a people.