Speaking at the UN, Ahmad al-Sharaa tells an unfinished story
As Syria’s first head of state to address the UN in nearly 60 years, Ahmad al-Sharaa promised a new chapter despite a host of challenges facing his divided country’s political transition.
25 September 2025
New York City, USA – For the first time in nearly 60 years, a Syrian president stood behind the speaker’s podium at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York.
“Our story is one of the lessons of history,” Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa said as he began his address on Wednesday. For a brief nine minutes, he told the UN General Assembly that story with the demeanor of a diplomat, in the culmination of his own metamorphosis from jihadist to statesman.
“For 60 years, Syria fell under the weight of an oppressive, tyrannical regime. Our people endured many years of oppression, subjugation and deprivation, until they rose up demanding their freedom and dignity,” he said.
The stakes were high for the new Syrian president, who seeks to build his reputation, mend ties with the West and attract the international support needed to rebuild his country.
Since landing in New York on Sunday, al-Sharaa had met with policymakers and analysts as well as notable members of the Syrian-American community. He even sat down for a talk with his former captor, retired General David Petraeus, who led American forces in Iraq where al-Sharaa was imprisoned between 2006 and 2011.
On the sidelines of the UN summit, al-Sharaa also met United States (US) President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan—one of his strongest backers.
“This is a great opportunity for Ahmad al-Sharaa to present Syria to the rest of the world,” Karam Shaar, a Syrian political economist and the UN’s Chief Economic Consultant for Syria, told Syria Direct ahead of Wednesday’s address. “It is a forum that the Assad regime had not been utilizing, but Ahmad al-Sharaa views it with a completely different lens.”
The former regime had boycotted the yearly assembly since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, accusing the UN of siding with Israel.
Al-Sharaa’s speech and “the professionalism that he and his team will have during the trip—will have a significant impact on Syria’s presence in the international community and on Syria’s image,” Shaar said.
The speech mattered for the president’s image, too. Under the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, al-Sharaa commanded the militant Islamist faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which