The inside story of the man who holds the key to Syria

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is an ex-al Qaeda operative who says he's changed his ways

- Robert Fox

Just a few weeks ago the name Ahmed al-Sharaa, 42, would barely have prompted a flicker of recognition beyond a narrow neighbourhood of northern Syria and Iraq. Better known under his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, he may now be a candidate for personality of the year, an icon on the Time magazine cover, possibly alongside Donald Trump.

In little over 10 days, al-Jolani led an alliance from his base in Idlib across northern Syria, first to liberate the second city Aleppo, and within a week take over the capital Damascus.

His lightly armed, fast-moving columns forced the Syrian state army to surrender or flee. The entourage of President Bashar al-Assad, who had run a family dictatorship which began 45 years ago, bunked off to Moscow. Iranian and Hezbollah militias withdrew from Syria.

Al-Jolani acted swiftly and adroitly, blindsiding commentators and critics with his diplomatic and public relations skills. He and his movement, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, had started firmly in the Sunni Islamist jihadi tradition. In the past he had been loyal to Osama bin Laden, charismatic founder of al Qaeda, and its more extreme, nay psychopathic, scions like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who blew up Iraq, and even Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, first Caliph and founder of the Islamic State in Iraq in 2014.

From establishing his power base in Idlib in 2015, al-Jolani has steadily distanced himself from Islamist extremism and nihilism. In Idlib he allowed cautious tolerance of minorities such as the Kurds and Christians.

Diplomatic tightrope