Our next segment is about to begin. Christian, you beat me to it. Let me just quickly say that it is with a newsmaker who is a leader that has transformed and dominated global headlines over the last 12 months. He's altered the trajectory of his country's history. If you'll remember, one year ago, almost to the day, as we gathered here at the Doha Forum on the 8th of December, 2024, Christian, you were here, we got news that he led opposition forces and factions that toppled Syria's longtime leader, Bashar al-Assad. His ascent from militant commander to head of state marks one of the most dramatic and consequential shifts in recent Middle Eastern history. So ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the president of Syria, Ahmed Al-sharaa, who joins Christian for a newsmaker interview. [applause]
I'm talking and everyone is, but you were good. But it's funny how people say it again. We await the arrival of President Ahmed Al-sharaa of Syria. He should be making his way to this hall any moment now. Christian, waiting for this discussion to begin.
Prowling. Give us a preview. No. [laughter] What do you intend to ask? Oh, no. You're keeping your cards close to your chest. [laughter] So, we will wait, but he should be coming in. Yeah, he was waiting. So, he'll be. So, please obviously don't go anywhere. [snorts] This conversation will begin hopefully in the next few seconds. Hopefully. Hi. Hi. Shita, do you want to chat? Do you want to chat? No, I just want, I just. Heat. Hey, Heat.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Syrian president Ahmed Al-sharaa. [applause] [music] How are you? Please. Just going to get mine in there.
All right, everybody. Mr. President, welcome. Everybody's looking forward to hearing from you. It's almost exactly a year ago that we were all gathered here and we heard the news that your forces were storming towards Damascus and that President Assad at the time fled. So it caused a bit of an earthquake in this room and in international communications and policy. So here we are one year later. You, Mr. President, have brought Syria out of its international isolation. You've been here, you've been there, you've been in the White House, you've been at the UN, you have been all over the place. Let's start by asking you whether you believe that Syria is fully into and integrated into the international community and whether you have hope that your economy is on the way to being fixed.
In the name of God, the most compassionate, the most merciful. First off, thank you for having me. Quite frankly, Syria has been through a number of serious phases over the past 100 years, particularly over the past 60 years. Syria was living in a strong and extreme isolation, and it was living through a stifling economic embargo. The policies of the former regime actually prompted the majority of regional players and international players to shy away from Syria. And as a result, the world was isolated from the Syrian reality and Syria was isolated and deprived of the rest of the world.
This time last year, yes, you were at the Doha Forum and we were getting ready to storm Damascus and we probably changed the plans for the Doha Forum back then as we were advancing militarily on Damascus. And after roughly two days from today, we declared that we had entered Damascus. Over the past year, Syria managed to regain a large number of its regional and international relations and ties. And I think we have gone beyond the rapprochement phase and everything we promised, I believe that we've kept since we entered Damascus. And this has managed to build trust between us and a large number of regional and international players. I believe we are definitely on the right path. Every single step we have taken has helped the national interest of Syria and we have regained our regional and international status, which is quite significant. And we went from being a country that exported crisis to a country where we have an actual hope of delivering stability and being a living model for regional stability in the region. Particularly if we look at the tensions that are happening across the region, and I believe the world has quickly realized this opportunity and the world has started working with Syria immediately in order to benefit from Syria's status when it comes to regional stability and Syria's influence over stability in the region.
As you said, you're surrounded by a load of countries which potentially may not have any interest in your stability. Let's say Israel. I've talked to several officials here and before I got here, as we know, Israel continues military operations on your country and it has demanded, I think, you can correct me if I'm wrong, a sort of a demilitarized zone all the way from Damascus to the border. What is your reaction? Because there are those who don't believe that Israel has an interest in a unified Syria. What do you think Israel's objectives are in your country?
Israel, in managing its crisis in the region, often exports crisis to other countries and tries to run away from the horrifying massacres it committed in Gaza, and it does so by attempting to export crisis. Israel has become a country that is in a fight against ghosts. They justify everything using their security concerns and they take October 7th and extrapolate it to everything that is happening around them. I believe that since we arrived in Damascus, we sent positive messages regarding regional peace and stability and we've said very frankly that Syria will be a country of stability and we are not concerned in being a country that exports conflict, including to Israel. However, in return, Israel has met us with extreme violence and Syria has suffered massive violations of our airspace and we've been victim of over 1,000 air strikes and over 400 incursions, the last of which was the massacre that Israel committed in Homs that left over 25 people dead.
So what we try to do is convince powerful regional players and powerful international players. The entire world today supports Syria in its demands when we demand Israel to go back to the pre-December 8th lines. We have also been very adamant about respecting the 1974 agreement. This agreement has held on for over 50 years. So one way or another we can call it a successful agreement. And messing with this agreement, even though it has received international unanimity and Security Council approval, and attempting to seek other agreements such as a buffer zone or something similar, I believe these attempts will send us into a serious and dangerous place and we don't know what the result may be. They could be successful or not. So I believe the best thing we do is to commit to the 1974 agreement that has held on for so long. As far as a demilitarized zone is concerned, let us deconstruct that. How will it be? Who will protect that zone? Israel often says that they are afraid of coming under attack from southern Syria. So, who will be protecting this buffer zone or this demilitarized zone if the Syrian army or the Syrian forces aren't going to be there? So there are currently negotiations and the United States is participating and engaged in those negotiations and like I said all countries support an Israeli pullout to the pre-December 8th lines and everybody is okay with addressing logical and reasonable security concerns and that's the key word here, reasonable security concern, in order to make sure that everyone is safe and secure. And just a reminder, it is Syria that is being attacked by Israel and not the opposite, and therefore who has more right to claim a buffer zone and a pullout.
Let's talk about some of the concerns from inside your country. Look, I was at an event the other night for Syria in London and one of the main speakers said the fall of Assad marks a new dawn for Syria. It's not just the end of our struggle. It is the beginning of a different chapter, one where we are finally allowed to hope, to imagine recovery, and to speak openly about the country we want to build. So let's speak openly because it's not just the Israeli attacks and other neighbors that you have issues with. But you have an issue with internal unity and there seems to be tribal minority fragmentation, and that's a kind word, and a lot of fear inside your country. So as you know you need the US Congress to lift the Caesar Act. That's the last of the very, very important sanctions and after what happened in Suwayda and to the Alawites etc. there was a pullback and I want to know whether this is really important enough for you to fix and to try to really do what you said you wanted to do which was unify your country and how you think you're going to do that.
First off, I disagree with the use of the term fear. Because there are millions of people who are taking to the streets spontaneously. They have been doing that over the past two weeks and celebrating the fall of the regime. Are those people afraid? On the contrary, I believe Syria is living through its best days. We are talking about a country that's aware, that's conscious, and there is not a single country in the world without domestic issues and there's not an authority in the world that receives unanimous approval from its people, as you're very well aware. For roughly 100 years ago, modern Syria was established and we went through a number of phases, particularly the pre-independence phase and then a number of coup d'états followed by the regime that ruled over Syria over the past 60 years. And so over the past couple of years, the Syrian people simply did not know each other well. During the revolution, there was a lot of mixing and mingling amongst the various factions and communities in Syria and we actually inherited a lot of conflicts and a lot of differences from the old regime because they used to use confessions against each other. However, ever since we took over, we actually resorted to pardoning a large number of people and a large number of factions so that we can build a sustainable, safe, and secure future for the Syrian people and so that we can secure another opportunity for the Syrian people to get to know each other. In order to do that, we engaged a lot of factions and communities in the national dialogue and in the government. So a lot of measures that we did helped calm the situation down because in a lot of countries that see conflicts there's the post-conflict cycle that often lasts longer than the war. So we tried to avoid all of this by taking a series of measures and the majority of these measures were successful. However, let us also be realistic. Is Syria required to obtain 100% unanimity, the Syrian government? This doesn't occur even in advanced countries that are living through relative stability. However, Syria has moved from one regime to another that does not resemble it at all following the success of a popular revolution. Of course, there were people who were damaged because they were benefiting from the former regime and we are trying to manage things. Over the past year, we delivered a number of significant achievements. Of course, there were some issues that are completely unacceptable to us and we are working on holding those who caused them and who perpetrated them accountable. However, once again, I believe that Syria is on a positive path. It is tending towards stability. We also have economic growth that is gradually taking shape and we are seeing the first indications of this economic growth. Additionally, the service environment has improved over the past year. People were receiving an hour and a half of electricity per day and now we have reached 12 to 14 hours per day and hopefully this year we will be self-sufficient in terms of electricity and we're constantly working on developing our services. So we are moving to a completely different economic environment and I believe the investments that we managed to attract will greatly help us achieve stability. That is why we asked the United States and we sat down with Congress members a number of times to convince them to lift the Caesar law which was imposed on the former regime given the crimes that they perpetrated against the Syrian people. And therefore today this law should not be a tool to starve the Syrian people again. And there was great understanding and I believe we're at the 95% point and the current US administration under President Trump's presidency supports lifting the sanctions imposed on Syria as you've all seen and I believe this applies to the majority of the world's countries. And when we talk about the Syrian people, we're talking about 25 million people and even Syria has great strategic importance and influence on regional stability. And this should not be linked to some people who are not convinced when it comes to lifting sanctions on Syria. So I believe we're headed towards the lifting of sanctions. That is, this is the wise thing to do and this is as a result of the interest linking Syria to the rest of the world.
