A handout picture provided by the Saudi Royal Palace shows Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) greeting Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa as US President Donald Trump looks on, in Riyadh on May 14, 2025. (Credit: AFP)
Foreign policy circles within the U.S. administration floated the idea of assassinating interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a U.S. Senator told a Senate hearing on Thursday.
The comments, first reported by Middle East Eye, were made by Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen during a hearing for nominees to the position of assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, a senior position within the State Department, responsible for U.S. foreign policy and relations for North Africa and the Middle East.
“I have been concerned by some rumors that I have heard in some circles — that have been repeated to me by people from the Middle East — that they have heard in foreign policy circles in the administration, that one option that’s been suggested is assassinating the new leader of the Syrian government, Mr. Ahmad al-Sharaa,” Shaheen said, while posing questions to nominee Joel Rayburn. She then asked Rayburn what he thought the implications would be.
Rayburn responded saying he was “not familiar with efforts like that,” and that he believes assassinating Sharaa is “clearly not in line with the president’s intention … or his description of Sharaa in the past couple of days.”
Shaheen said Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who she met with during his visit to Washington in early May, became aware of the discussion and warned that any move to kill Sharaa would risk triggering “an all-out civil war in Syria.”
Sharaa is a former al-Qaeda commander who spent five years in a U.S. prison in Iraq and later distanced himself from his extremist past. As leader of a coalition of rebels that toppled the Assad family's decades-long dictatorship, Sharaa emerged as the head of Syria's interim government, promoting a rhetoric of moderation and national unity amid a fragile transition period. After their meeting in Riyadh, former U.S. President Donald Trump described him as a “young, attractive guy, tough guy,” and “a fighter” with a “very strong past.”
“He’s got a real shot at holding it together,” Trump said at the time.
The U.S. lifted its $10 million bounty on Sharaa’s head just 12 days after the Assad regime’s collapse. However, he remains on the U.S. Specially Designated Global Terrorist list under his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani.
Middle East Eye recalls Trump's statements describing how he had been personally lobbied by foreign leaders to give Sharaa a chance, even as his own advisors showed hostility toward the new Syrian leader and Israel remained determed to undermine Sharaa's attempts at getting Syria back on its feet. On May 2, Israel bombed a site near the presidential palace in Damascus, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as “a clear message” to the Syrian regime.
The United Arab Emirates has set up a backchannel for talks between Israel and Syria, Reuters reported on May 7, citing Syrian security officials and a regional intelligence officer. According to these sources, Syrian authorities have been actively seeking support from regional actors in dealing with the aggression from its neighbor to the south. The indirect contacts are reportedly focused on security and intelligence matters and "confidence-building," Reuters says.
In a post on X, journalist Hussam Hammoud referenced the latest issue of ISIS’ weekly publication, Al-Naba’, which features on its cover a picture of Trump and Sharaa shaking hands during their Wednesday meeting. In the issue, ISIS frames Sharaa as a traitor to Islam and calls on fighters within the ranks of his now-dissolved Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham group to “repent” and join ISIS instead.
In March, Syria’s Interior Ministry released a video showing a purported ISIS fighter confessing to a plot to assassinate Sharaa with help from three Lebanese ISIS members.
On Tuesday evening, Trump made a surprise announcement at an investment forum in Saudi Arabia that he would be lifting all U.S. sanctions on Syria, a move he later admitted was taken without any consultation with his administration’s main ally in the region, Israel. Saudi Arabia, which agreed to pay all of Syria’s World Bank debt, was Sharaa’s first diplomatic destination after becoming interim president.
“Oh what I do for the crown prince,” Trump said as the applause that had erupted at his declaration eventually died down.