This is John Batchel, conversation with colleague Jonathan Shanzer, the executive director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, about the man named Al-Shara, the self-named president of Syria.

Al-Sharra reminds of, well, Jonathan uses it, a wolf in sheep's clothing, shaking hands with leaders such as Muhammad bin Salman and President

Trump, traveling to the UN to make a speech of the better day for Syria.

The same time, there are murderers among them, and he is the leader of the murderers.

Most recently, murdering two members of the Iowa National Guard in Syria,

a man who was understood as a part of the security forces of the new Syria. This is a double-talk

game that I witnessed with Arafat, pretending to a man of peace while he directed the violent members

of the PLO.

Here's Jonathan to explain his opinion of Alshara, not so far permanently.

Much more of this tonight.

Oh, I think that Alshara is absolutely operating out of the Arafat playbook.

Arafat was trying to convey to the United States that he was a man of peace, that he was a moderate, and all the while was unwilling to accept the very notion of peace that was offered to him by Bill Clinton and ultimately launched a major war that has ravaged the Middle East.

One could argue that it maybe never even ended given what we're watching right now in Gaza today and the war that has erupted on seven plus fronts across the Middle East.

So yes, Ahmed al-Shara is a wolf in sheep's clothing. I think once a jihadist,

always a jihadist. Once a terrorist, always a terrorist. I think that is the rule that we should work

under, or an understanding that we should work under with all of these leaders across the Middle East.

I do not trust this man one bit.