Interim Syrian President Ahmad el-Chareh at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus in December 2024. (Credit: AFP.)
Interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa has been named among the 100 most influential people of the year 2025, according to the annual list by Time Magazine. The de facto leader of Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime last December was cited in the "political leaders" category, where he is described as a "pragmatic politician" and "ambitious."
"Last December, after years of building a powerful armed faction - Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, internationally classified as a terrorist group - Ahmad al-Sharaa and his rebel alliance overthrew the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria," writes Time Magazine.
Islamist extremist or rather "pragmatic politician?"
"Now interim president of the whole of Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa balances between the militants he once led and the liberal Syrians relieved by Assad's departure. Observers wonder if he is an Islamist extremist whose moderate positions are merely strategies for temporary political gain, or if he is rather a pragmatic politician who exploited extremist groups to gain power," continues the short biography written for each honoree.
The magazine also recalls his past as a jihadist fighter in the ranks of the Syrian branch of al-Qaida, the al-Nusra Front, or the Islamic State, who was removed from the global terrorist list at the end of December, shortly after the overthrow of the Assad regime. Washington then removed the $10 million bounty placed on his head.
"Once aligned with al-Qaida, then with the Islamic State, the soft-spoken al-Sharaa later aggressively fought both groups to ensure his fighters answered to him. More recently, he forged alliances with other Syrian rebels, often under the threat of arms, and secured the support of Turkey. To defeat Assad, the ambitious Ahmad al-Sharaa understood that he needed to become a political leader as well as a military force," the text concludes.
Also in the same category are U.S. President Donald Trump, his Vice President J.D. Vance, Elon Musk, Argentine President Javier Milei, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.