October 15, 2025 | Foreign Policy
Buying the Hatchet
How arms deals are helping Sharaa to make up with Moscow.
October 15, 2025 | Foreign Policy
Buying the Hatchet
How arms deals are helping Sharaa to make up with Moscow.
Excerpt
In 2019, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared that “the den of terrorists must be destroyed.” He was referring Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the militant group whose leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, just met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday.
Sharaa has been widely praised as a pragmatist. But his pivot on Russia—a full partner in Bashar al-Assad’s violence against both HTS and the Syrian people—is still remarkable.
Ahmad Sharawi is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, focusing on Middle East affairs and the Levant.