Syria gets a new autocrat as Sharaa styles himself ‘president’
Forget the risk of Syria turning into an Islamist emirate. The country’s de facto ruler and former al-Qaeda operative Ahmad Sharaa on Wednesday proclaimed himself “transitional president,” with his X account simply dropping the word “transitional” and referring to him as “president of the Syrian Arab Republic.” But who died and made Sharaa king? The answer is no one. In a region where “might is right,” the guy with the gun becomes “president,” and, before we know it, Sharaa will be president, forever.
But not all Syrians are on board. Taha Bali, a Syrian-American Sunni from Damascus and a supporter of the Syrian revolution since its outbreak in 2011, has been vocal in calling out Syria’s new autocrat and his autocratic tendencies.
Two months after moving into the People’s Palace, once Bashar Assad’s seat of power, Sharaa had “received foreign ministers, intelligence chiefs, celebrities, [International Criminal Court] prosecutor, foreign media and Syrian diaspora,” Bali wrote on X.
But, Sharaa had yet to receive families of Syrians whom Assad had killed or imprisoned, those injured and maimed in 14 years of civil war, local non-governmental organizations, unions or local media. Bali concluded that Sharaa’s intentions were clear. He was only interested in connecting with “the strong,” whether domestic or foreign, while not addressing the Syrians directly or visiting places outside the presidential palace, such as the notorious Saydnaya prison.
To be fair, Sharaa did leave the presidential palace, but only to receive Emir of Qatar Tamim Bin Hamad, whose plane landed at the Damascus airport on Thursday on the first visit by a head of state.
In another post, Bali welcomed the merger of all armed factions into a centralized