Syria’s al-Sharaa Says Damascus Has No Appetite for War

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - In a moment of stark and revealing candor during his first-ever American television interview, Syrian Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa described the recent Israeli bombing of his presidential palace as a "declaration of war," a provocative act that he said went far beyond the realm of sending a mere political "message." Yet, in the same breath, the man who rose to power from the ashes of a brutal civil war and his own controversial past immediately pivoted to a message of de-escalation, insisting that his "new and free Syria" does not want to engage in wars and does not seek to be a threat to Israel or any other nation.

This statement, delivered to Margaret Brennan of the CBS News program 60 Minutes, encapsulates the precarious diplomatic tightrope the new Syrian leader must walk as he attempts to rebuild a shattered nation, navigate a minefield of regional tensions, and convince a skeptical world that he has truly transformed from a designated global terrorist into a pragmatic and peace-seeking head of state.

The wide-ranging interview, which aired on Sunday, provided an unprecedented look at the man who, in a stunning 11-day blitzkrieg in December 2024, overthrew the 54-year Assad family dynasty. The context for the Israeli strikes, and for President al-Sharaa's blunt assessment, is a series of deeply troubling and violent internal events that have raised questions about his control over the various militias that brought him to power.

As detailed by CBS News, his new government has faced accusations of sectarian violence. In March, his security forces and allied militia were accused of participating in the massacre of 1,500 civilians in the coastal region, most of whom were members of the Alawite community that had been loyal to the former Assad regime.

While President al-Sharaa described the United Nations' finding that his forces violated humanitarian law as an "exaggerated description," he insisted that his government is "committed to prosecuting anyone who committed crimes against civilians."

More recently, this summer, new accusations of violence emerged during a fight between ethnic groups, this time against the minority Druze community in the southern city of Sweida, where al-Sharaa's security forces and a Bedouin militia were accused of executing unarmed civilians.

This incident prompted a direct and forceful military intervention from neighboring Israel, which has its own significant Druze population. The Israeli military bombed Syria's army headquarters and its Defense Ministry. It was in this context that President al-Sharaa revealed to 60 Minutes that the strikes had gone even further. He told Margaret Brennan that Israel had also bombed the grounds of his presidential palace on two separate occasions.

"One time I wasn't there, but the other time I was in the palace close to the site that was bombed," he recounted. It was this deeply personal and provocative act that elicited his starkest warning. "To target the palace to convey a message, that's not a message, that's a declaration of war," he stated, his words a clear indication of the gravity of the Israeli action.

However, in a move that signals a clear desire to avoid a wider conflict at a time of immense domestic vulnerability, he immediately followed this charge with a message of restraint.

"But Syria doesn't want to engage in wars, and it doesn't want to be a threat to Israel or anyone else," he affirmed. When confronted with Israel's public justification for the strikes—that it had to act to protect the Druze because his forces did not—President al-Sharaa was firm and unequivocal, asserting his nation's sovereignty: "This is a Syrian internal matter that should be resolved legally by Syrian authorities."

This delicate and dangerous dance with Israel is just one of the immense challenges facing the new Syrian leader. To understand his current position, President al-Sharaa insisted that one must first grasp the sheer scale of the devastation that his country has endured.

Before sitting down for the formal interview, he took the 60 Minutes team to Jobar, a once-thriving suburb of Damascus that has been reduced to a haunting, apocalyptic landscape of pulverized concrete and skeletal, bombed-out buildings.

"This war was cruel. It was a hard war," he said, walking through the ruins of a city that was once home to 300,000 people. "Every single room in any one of these buildings holds memories for those people who lived here."

He was adamant that this destruction was not collateral damage, but a deliberate and systematic strategy of the former Assad regime and its allies, Russia and Iran. "All these were direct targets with one objective: To displace the people in these areas," he stated.

The human cost of that strategy, as detailed by CBS News, has been catastrophic. Over half a million Syrians died during the nearly 14-year civil war, and approximately 13 million people—fully half the country's pre-war population—are either internally displaced or living as refugees abroad.

President al-Sharaa spoke of the "entire generations that have suffered tremendous psychological trauma," and said that it is "very important that the period of liberation, give people new hope for their return and for reconstruction." 

He estimated the staggering cost of rebuilding his country to be between $600 and $900 billion, a sum that will require immense help from the international community. "The world watched this tragedy unfold for 14 years and couldn't do anything to stop this massive crime," he said in a powerful final appeal. "So, the world today should provide support to Syria. Anyone who obstructs the lifting of sanctions on Syria is an accomplice to those who committed this crime."

President al-Sharaa's own improbable path to power is a source of deep skepticism for many of the international partners he now needs. As detailed by 60 Minutes, about 20 years ago, he left an upper-middle-class life in Syria to join al Qaeda in Iraq.

He was arrested and spent six years in American and Iraqi prisons. Upon his release in 2011, at the start of the popular uprising against Assad, he founded an al Qaeda affiliate in Syria that staged a series of suicide bombings and armed attacks. This led the United States to designate him, under his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, a "global terrorist," placing him on a wanted poster with a $10 million reward on his head.

When confronted with this past by Margaret Brennan, President al-Sharaa sought to frame it as a product of his youth and a different era of understanding.

"We are talking about 25 years ago. I was 17 or 18 years old," he said. "The level of awareness that you have now is different from what it was 20 years ago."

He pointed to his eventual and decisive breaks with his former allies as proof of his evolution. He broke ties with the founder of the terror group ISIS and, in 2016, formally renounced his allegiance to al Qaeda.

"If I had agreed with them, I would not have left them," he stated.

He also pushed back against being described as a "pragmatist," a term he felt had negative connotations in Arabic. "The point is let's look at what's happening now….. regardless of what was said in the media," he urged. "Today, we have really saved the people from the oppression that was being thrust on them by the criminal regime."

This new era is a complex mixture of hope and profound difficulty. Ten months into his leadership, Damascus shows signs of normalcy, but the country is crippled by a devalued currency and a near-total collapse of basic services like electricity and water.

President al-Sharaa is now calling for all international sanctions to be lifted, a call that has been met with a bold but still provisional step from the Trump administration. In May, President Trump announced that he would be "ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness."

For this to become permanent, however, President al-Sharaa will need the U.S. Congress to repeal the sanctions, and for China and Russia to vote to lift the terrorism sanctions against him at the United Nations.

His relationship with Russia is particularly complex. He personally welcomed a high-level delegation from Moscow to Damascus last month, a remarkable development given the Russian air force's role in bombing cities like Jobar. When asked about bringing Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin to justice, President al-Sharaa was pragmatic.

"We will use all legal means possible to demand that Bashar al-Assad be brought to justice," he said. "However, engaging in a conflict with Russia right now would be too costly for Syria. Nor would it be in the country's interest."

As he navigates these immense foreign policy challenges, President al-Sharaa is also attempting to build a new political system at home. Parliamentary elections were held in much of the country this past week, though with limited eligibility. Under an interim constitution he signed in March, he is slated to serve as president for five years, leading a transition to a fully elected government.

When asked what kind of government he ultimately wants for Syria, his answer was direct and unambiguous. He said that general elections, where "every person gets one vote," will be held "once the infrastructure is rebuilt, and once the population has IDs and proper documents."

If he can follow through on this promise, it would indeed be a new day for Syria. But as his tense standoff with Israel so powerfully demonstrates, the path to that new day is fraught with immense and immediate dangers.