Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly a member of al Qaeda and also known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, has been appointed Syria's president for a transitional period.

“We announce the appointment of Commander Ahmad al-Sharaa as head of state during the transitional period. He will assume the duties of the president of the Syrian Arab Republic and represent the country in international forums,” Syria Military Operations Command spokesman commander Hassan Abdel Ghani stated on Wednesday.

“The president is authorised to form a temporary legislative council for the transitional phase, which will carry out its duties until a permanent constitution is enacted and put into effect,” Ghani further said.

The newly established government in Syria has enacted several key resolutions, including the suspension of the nation's constitution, the dissolution of its parliament, and the disbanding of the military and the Baath Party that supported the previous regime.

Al-Sharaa, who led the main militant faction behind the rapid campaign that resulted in the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, is now tasked with rebuilding Syria, a country devastated by over a decade of civil war. The conflict, which began in 2011 during the Arab Spring when Assad’s government crushed a pro-democracy movement, has claimed more than 300,000 lives and displaced millions. The war escalated into a broader regional struggle involving powers like Saudi Arabia, Iran, the US and Russia and briefly allowed ISIS to establish a presence in the country.

Before being appointed president, Al-Sharaa commented that the Assad regime had “left behind deep societal, economic, political and other wounds, and fixing them requires great wisdom, hard work and doubled effort.”

He said a sense of responsibility was what Syria "needs today more than ever,".

“Just as we were determined in the past to liberate it, our duty now is to be determined to build and develop it,” Al-Sharaa further said.

Ahmad al-Sharaa's journey into becoming a Syrian “foreign fighter” began when he was in his early 20s. He travelled from Syria to Iraq to fight against American forces during the 2003 invasion. This decision ultimately led to his capture and imprisonment at Camp Bucca, a notorious US-run facility in Iraq that ironically became a breeding ground for terrorist groups, including the precursor to ISIS.

After his release from Camp Bucca, al-Sharaa returned to Syria, where he joined the fight against the Assad regime. Notably, he received backing from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who would later go on to found ISIS.

In Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa founded a militant group called Jabhat al-Nusra, or “the Victory Front,” which initially aligned itself with al-Qaeda. However, in 2016, he broke ties with the terror organisation, as the US Centre for Naval Analyses stated.

Since then, al-Sharaa’s group, which is now called HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham), has shifted focus from al-Qaeda's global holy war to more practical concerns. Rather than waging an international jihad, HTS has worked to govern the millions of people in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, focusing on providing essential services, as noted by terrorism expert Aaron Zelin, who has authored a book on HTS.