I'm Aaron Mate with the Gray Zone. The new president of Syria, Ahmed al-Shara, aka Muhammad

Al-Jalani, is in New York for the UN General Assembly. Al-Shara's trip is widely

being described as the first visit by a Syrian president to the U.S. in nearly six decades.

That's one way to look at it. Another way is that it's the first visit by the founding

leader of al-Qaeda in Syria since the U.S. dropped a 10 million bounty on him last December.

That's right. The founding leader of Syria's Al-Qaeda franchise is now receiving a warm reception

in the city that suffered the deadliest toll of Al-Qaeda's 9-11 attack 24 years ago

this month. How is that possible? Well, it's simple. Al-Shara, aka Al-Jalani, led the successful

coup of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last year, the culmination of a more than decade-long

dirty war led by the U.S. and allies.

As Jake Sullivan put it at the very outset of that war in early 2012, Al-Qaeda is on our side in Syria.

Well, because Al-Qaeda was on our side in Syria, the U.S. has given its founding leader a warm reception since he took over in Syria.

Not just by taking al-Qaeda off of the terror list, but even heaping praise.

Here, for example, is U.S. envoy Tom Barak.

You have an entity that was viewed as a guerrilla warfare group that had done a good job in Idlib now takes over

in Syria. By the way, they've been trustworthy, they've been thoughtful, they've been considered.

That's right. According to the Trump administration, Al-Qaeda's ruling offshoot in Syria has been

thoughtful and considered. And because the U.S. has given

al-Qaeda a pass in Syria, this also means overlooking the atrocities committed under

their watch. Since taking power, forces tied to the new government have committed sectarian

violence against Syria's minority groups, just to take the two most notorious examples of many.

In March, hundreds, possibly thousands of Alawite civilians were massacred by government-tied forces in Syria's coastal regions.

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