It was surreal to sit down with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in his suite at the St. Regis, right next to the White House, on the eve of Veterans Day.

In 2005, U.S. forces caught him planting roadside bombs in Iraq and held him for six years. Then he led Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate, the Nusra Front, before breaking away in 2016. Until December, the U.S. government had a $10 million bounty on his head. Just Friday, the State Department removed him from a list of designated terrorists.

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