A few days ago, we heard the speech of Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa delivered before the 80th U.N. General Assembly (UNGA). He is the first Syrian president to visit the U.S. in 60 years.
True to themselves, the remnants of the fallen Syrian regime seized the opportunity of this visit to boast and swagger that Hafez Assad, the late regime leader and father of the toppled leader Bashar Assad, had refused to go to the U.S. Sixty years of that, and they call it "resistance"; they dare to label it as "anti-imperialism."
But Syrian people sincerely ask themselves, what have they gained from this "resistance"? What have they gained from hostility against the U.S. from 1967 until today? What immense benefit did they obtain? Have they gained dignity? No. Have they achieved economic prosperity? No. Besides, the Golan Heights is still occupied, Palestine is still occupied, and Syrian people remain hungry, displaced and exiled.
What have Assad, father and son, done with their "resistance," and what have they offered Syria, except misery, prisons and the destruction of homes over the heads of their inhabitants with bombs bought from their budget that were supposedly meant to fight the enemy! Hafez Assad and his son, after him, worked to destroy the entire region politically and socially, not just Syria.
Yet the father Assad’s hostility toward the U.S. was merely a façade. The Russians knew it and were aware of the reality of the relations between the Assads and the Americans behind the public pretense. The collusion between the Assads and the Americans was at its peak, but under the table. The problem of the Syrians with Assad is that, in front of them, he played the national hero, while behind their backs, he bargained over everything.
For 50 years, Assad proclaimed the “strategic balance” against Israel, the real enemy of the nation. He exhausted the Syrian economy, emptied the citizens’ pockets, besieged, tortured and killed them, all in the name of this lie of strategic balance.
For decades, Syrians have heard that Russia, their "friend,” would establish an air bridge if Syria went to war against Israel. And indeed, Syrians saw this bridge, but Russian planes bombed and destroyed Syrian towns over the heads of Bashar Assad’s citizens.
Everything had been prepared to protect the Assad regime, not to fight Israel. In his military plans and operation rooms, no offensive against Israel was ever planned. Assad’s plans were always designed to defend his reign against his own people.
So what has Syria gained from military and strategic balance, from the Soviet Union, and from the entire socialist bloc? Nothing, except more hunger, humiliation and tents!
And what has Syria gained from the so-called "Axis of Resistance," except for Iran entering with its various sectarian Shiite militias and intervening in Syria, bringing death, displacement and corruption?
Moreover, Hafez Assad did all this in agreement with Uncle Sam, of course. Syrians do not claim that the U.S. wanted good for Syria. The U.S. was satisfied with Assad. As long as his borders with Israel remained calm, Assad was their friend. And as long as he did not claim the Golan (which he had, in fact, sold to them), Assad was their ally.
One of the reasons for the Syrian revolution against Assad was precisely to put an end to this flood of lies, deceptions, abuses and pretenses that they had been subjected to and forced to swallow for decades.
Courage does not consist of refusing to go to New York and cutting oneself off from the world’s podiums. As president, your mission is to go to the U.N., to the U.S., to the ends of the world, to go wherever the interest of your people requires, wherever there is a benefit for your people, and not for your sect or your children.
What benefits did Assad’s “resistance” bring to 23 million Syrians? What consequences did it have on their daily lives? Nothing, of course. This is not about whitewashing the U.S.’ reputation.
Washington runs the game and sets the rules. And you, as president, must play. In politics, there is no sulking. What do you gain if you stay off the field? You must step down to play, you must learn to play, and you must master the game to obtain some rights for your people. You will not get all the rights; that is hardly achievable, but you can wrest some rights for your people, restore some dignity, and ensure economic gains.
Remaining isolated in your palace for 50 years to then declare, “If I give up a single inch of Tiberias, I would have given my bodyguard a reason to kill me,” is merely self-centeredness. The issue is not Tiberias. The issue is that Hafez Assad invented this theory to prolong his dictatorial rule.
Even when the Turkish president invited Bashar Assad to a meeting, his response revealed his political closed-mindedness; he replied ironically: “Meet for what? To have refreshments?”
Is that the response of the leader of a ruined state to an outstretched hand offering help to lift this state out of the filthy impasse in which it was plunged?
The only project the Assad regime offered the people was hostility toward the U.S. and Israel, and therefore, if he made peace, he would lose his legitimacy. Hafez Assad needed an enemy of the stature of the U.S. and Israel to continue lying to the people and ruling “forever” according to the abhorrent Baath Party slogan.
Today, Syria is going through a new phase. Al-Sharaa’s participation in the UNGA constitutes a vital matter, a national requirement and a responsibility resting on his shoulders.
Al-Sharaa fully understands the situation of his country and his people. He knows what his country has endured, what his people have suffered. And above all, he knows what his country and people need today. And so here he is, in the highest of international forums, delivering a speech and calling on the international community to correct its mistake, its incapacity “to free a single prisoner, or lift the siege of a single city whose inhabitants were starving” during fourteen years of war in Syria.
Since Assad’s fall, openings have occurred in Syria, which were long-standing dreams for citizens: longer hours of electricity supply, the disappearance of the fuel and heating crisis, a reduction in corruption and bribes, the lifting of European and American sanctions, and many other things that Assad, obsessed with his "resistance," would never have considered because they were “secondary details” to him.
Al-Sharaa started his talk with the former CIA Director David Petraeus, who had commanded U.S. forces in Iraq, at the annual Concordia Forum in New York 2025: “It is good that we have moved from a battlefield to a field of dialogue.” And this demonstrates the courage of a warrior who has triumphed and now strives for peace; it shows his vision for the future, which David Petraeus perceived, as did the entire world: that Syria must be safe, stable and unified. And that this is in the interest of all nations worldwide.
Al-Sharaa did not hesitate to tell Petraeus that the U.S. was an occupying force in Iraq. And this is an act of courage from a man on whose head Washington had placed, at the time, a $10 million bounty for his capture, but who is today the president of free Syria, respected by all, and whose policies are appreciated.
Syrians do not say that al-Sharaa was a "jihadi"; this is a Western label. We say that he was a fighter against injustice and a murderous regime, and today he is a man of constructive action and peace.
It is quite simple, as a member of the Syrian community in New York shouted during al-Sharaa’s welcome: “May God elevate you in honor as you have restored our dignity.” And indeed, Syria today is free and dignified thanks to this man, whether you like it or not.
