The rebel chief who led the overthrow of the longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad has been declared the head of government for a transitional period.

A hmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s president, spoke to The Economist on January 31st in Damascus. The conversation has been translated and lightly edited for clarity. You can read our analysis of the interview here.

Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa has arrived in Saudi Arabia and met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) on his first foreign trip since being named president of the transitional government earlier this week.

Syria's Interim President Ahmed Al Sharaa visits Turkey for high-level talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The meeting is seen as a significant diplomatic move amid ongoing regional tensions and efforts for cooperation between the two countries.

He had spent the day with the leaders of Syria’s myriad armed factions, trying to persuade them to disband. Over seven weeks after the fall of Damascus, the fate of these groups is still uncertain. His aides claim that all militias will be dissolved and then absorbed into a new national army.