Legitimise and reintegrate: Syria’s ex-Al Qaeda president to attend G7 conference

Former Al Qaeda member and US-backed Syrian president Ahmed Al-Sharaa will be a guest at the influential G7 forum. Al-Sharaa’s presence is about Syria’s reintegration into the global capitalist economy. Syria’s use by Western powers as a “potential strategic hub for supply chains” will also be discussed given the Strait of Hormuz is blocked.

The G7 is a multinational economic and political forum made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US. The EU is a non-enumerated member.

It meets annually:

to coordinate policy on global economic, security, and other critical issues, acting as a platform for shaping international responses to challenges like climate change, economic crises, and security threats.

Modern Diplomacy reported on 21 May:

Syria will participate in the upcoming G7 Summit in France as a guest nation, marking its first presence at the forum since its creation in 1975.

The country will be represented by President Ahmed al Sharaa, following an invitation linked to broader discussions on global supply chain stability and post-conflict economic rebuilding.

Economist Joseph Daher told New Arab:

The meeting is part of a continuous process to legitimise this government and reintegrate it regionally and internationally, as evidenced in the last few weeks, for example, by the issuance of visa cards and allowing international transactions.

Al-Sharaa replaced Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad in 2024. He was previously head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a split from the Syrian wing of Al Qaeda.

Syria — Al Qaeda and the global economy

Al-Sharaa visited the White House in November 2025. It was a bizarre spectacle. The Canary wrote at the time:

for 25 years the US carried out a campaign of world-spanning violence. Entire countries were destroyed, with millions killed, injured and displaced in the process. Unknown and unnamed thousands were imprisoned and tortured. All in the name, as global audiences were told, of defeating Al Qaeda – a sinister network of death. Never mind that we created and turbocharged one of our own, on a far bigger scale, to attempt the task.

Adding:

Clearly, these narratives still hold a singular power. Al-Qaeda and 9/11 are still cited to justify officially sanctioned use of violence — from bombing Venezuela to repressing the American left in recent months.

But the undeniable fact is that yesterday a former Al-Qaeda leader — until very recently — was in the White House smiling.

Daher felt Al-Sharaa’s guest appearance was less about helping ordinary Syrian’s and more about serving a colonial agenda:

The Syrian people are clearly not on the agenda for these meetings; this is about consolidating a state that serves [foreign] interests.

New Arab reported:

An invitation to Sharaa to attend the 15-17 June summit in Évian-les-Bains, southeastern France, was hand-delivered to Syrian Finance Minister Yisr Barnieh, who attended the group’s financial talks earlier this week in Paris.

The outlet said that the country was seeking to attract economic investment to rebuild. The leadership saw the Hormuz crisis as a chance to do so:

Regional powers, particularly the Gulf Arab states, and international interests, notably Western states, are converging on Syria, all seeking stability and commercial opportunities, facilitated by a government willing to serve their needs.

And:

At the same time, the ruling authority headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa seeks to embed itself within Western hegemonic infrastructure, while hedging its bets by pursuing ties with Russia and other alternatives.

The Western powers have gone a step further than before. Under a former Al Qaeda leadership, Syria is being reintegrated into the global economy.

This is being done under the aegis of Trump’s failing war in Iran. The G7 nations seem to hope that after a decade and a half of brutal civil war, Syria can be a hub for some form of economic workaround, offsetting the impacts of the latest US-Israeli disaster in the region.

Featured image via Justin Tallis – WPA Pool/Getty Images

By Joe Glenton

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