Amoral embrace: On the U.S. and the Syrian President

For Ahmed al-Sharaa , the founder of al-Qaeda’s Syria branch, and now the President of Syria, his recent visit to the White House has marked a remarkable turnaround in his career. From commanding an outfit responsible for suicide bombings and targeted killings, and carrying a $10 million bounty on his head, Mr. Sharaa, who until recently was known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, is now a very close partner of Washington. After their meeting, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he “gets along with him”. In December, only weeks after Mr. Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) toppled the secular Ba’athist regime of President Bashar al-Assad and seized Damascus, the U.S. lifted the bounty on the former jihadist commander. Earlier this week, Mr. Trump granted Syria wide exemptions on sanctions, an