BEIRUT, Dec 9 — As the commander of al Qaeda's franchise in the Syrian civil war, Abu Mohammed al-Golani was a shadowy figure who kept out of the public eye, even when his group became the most powerful faction fighting to topple Bashar al-Assad.
Today, he is the most recognisable of Syria's triumphant rebels, having gradually stepped into the limelight since severing ties to al Qaeda in 2016, rebranding his group, and leading the rebels who ousted Assad after 13 years of civil war.
"The future is ours," Golani, now going by his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, said in a statement read on Syria's state TV, underlining the central role he is expected to play as Syria turns the page on 50 years of Assad family rule.
Signalling his efforts to secure an orderly transition, he declared Syrian state institutions would remain under the supervision of the Assad-appointed prime minister until a handover.
Dressed in military fatigues, he also visited the 8th century Umayyad Mosque in the Old City of Damascus, accompanied by supporters who filmed the moment to chants of "God is Great".
Golani is leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel faction, formerly known as the Nusra Front and designated a terrorist group by much of the world.
Seeking to assure Syrian minorities who have long feared jihadist rule, Golani issued a steady stream of reassuring messages as insurgents began their lightning advance less than two weeks ago, promising them protection.
"Golani has been smarter than Assad. He’s retooled, he's refashioned, made new allies, and come out with his charm offensive" towards minorities, said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert and head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
Aron Lund, a fellow at think-tank Century International, said Golani and HTS had clearly changed though remained "pretty hardline".
"It's PR, but the fact they are engaging in this effort at all shows they are no longer as rigid as they once were. Old-school al Qaeda or the Islamic State would never have done that," he said.
Golani and the Nusra Front emerged as the most powerful of the multitude of rebel factions that sprang up in the early days of the insurgency against Assad over a decade ago.
Before founding the Nusra Front, Golani had fought for al Qaeda in Iraq, where he spent five years in a US prison. He returned to Syria once the uprising began, sent by the leader of the Islamic State group in Iraq at the time — Abu Omar al-Baghdadi — to build up al Qaeda's presence.
The US designated Golani a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad's rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria, and that Nusra had carried out suicide attacks that killed civilians and espoused a violent sectarian vision.
Meanwhile, reports have come in to confirm that former President Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow with his family after Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds.
A Kremlin source told Russian news agencies on Sunday that a deal has been done to ensure the safety of Russian military bases.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said earlier that Assad had left Syria and given orders for a peaceful transfer of power, after rebel fighters raced into Damascus unopposed on Sunday, ending nearly six decades of his family's iron-fisted rule.
"Syrian President Assad of Syria and members of his family have arrived in Moscow. Russia has granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds," the privately-owned Interfax news agency and state media quoted the unnamed Kremlin source as saying.
Interfax cited the same Kremlin source as saying Russia favoured a political solution to the crisis in Syria, where Moscow supported Assad during the long civil war.
The source said negotiations should be resumed under the auspices of the United Nations.
Syrian opposition leaders had agreed to guarantee the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions in Syria, the source told news agencies. But some Russian war bloggers said the situation around the bases was extremely tense and the source did not say how long the security guarantee lasted.
Moscow, a staunch backer of Assad whom it intervened to help in 2015 in its biggest Middle East foray since the Soviet collapse, is scrambling to salvage its position. Its geopolitical clout in the wider region and two strategically-important military bases in Syria are on the line.
— Reuters
