PLAY PODCASTS
Trump and the ex-terrorist: why the West needs Syria to work

Trump and the ex-terrorist: why the West needs Syria to work

Iran: The Latest · Louisa Wells

November 14, 202541m 11s

Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (sphinx.acast.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.

Show Notes

The Syrian civil war raged for years, wrecked a nation, and then quietly vanished from the headlines. Last December, a jihadist faction once aligned with Al-Qaeda toppled Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship. Their leader, al-Sharaa is now President of Syria and he met Donald Trump this week in the Oval Office, yes, really.


Al-Sharaa is calling it a “new era” for Syria, no enemies, just friends. He’s courting everyone: Russia, Israel, Iran, the Gulf, even Turkey. But can a man with blood on his hands truly change? Or is this a master of reinvention pulling off the biggest PR stunt in modern history?


So who really is Ahmed al-Sharaa? Joining Roland for Battle Lines we have Jerome Drevon, co-author of “Transformed by the People Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s Road to Power in Syria” and The Telegraph’s very own Adrian Blomfield.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/11/10/ahmed-al-sharaa-syrian-president-donald-trump-white-house/


► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor


https://linktr.ee/BattleLines


Contact us with feedback or ideas:

[email protected] 

@venetiarainey

@RolandOliphant


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.