We are asking the same question about how a person who was listed as a terrorist two years ago is being welcomed in every major capital in the world—in Europe, the U.S. and Washington, D.C. We see that there is some pragmatism here. President Trump—whom I don't want to quote at all—said that this was the guy they could find.
That country really wants to rebuild. It's not just about the regime. It's about the people. We are talking about tens of millions of people who are trying to rebuild their country. In that sense, it is about engagement. Assad, al-Sharaa or some other person could be there, but somebody will be leading this transition. Some democratic-minded, secular and pro-women person would be ideal, but given the geography.... It is an unfortunate situation.
What the international community can do now, from the inside and outside, is to make sure that although the Islamist regime has authoritarian tendencies, there are checks and balances working to somehow put it on the right track. We know it is a very difficult situation, but if it is left to its own conditions, I suspect we would have a very dysfunctional and repressive political regime in Syria. Therefore, the engagement of the international community is necessary not for al-Sharaa but for the peoples of Syria—that whole multiplicity. Everybody is trying to come out of that war.
However, that support should be very carefully organized and conditional on some fundamental principles.