A year ago, the war that President Bashar al-Assad seemed to have won was turned upside down.
A rebel force had broken out of Idlib, a Syrian province on the border with Turkey, and was storming towards Damascus. It was led by a man known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, and his militia group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Jolani was a nom-de-guerre, reflecting his family's roots in the Golan Heights, Syria's southern highlands, annexed by Israel after it was occupied in 1967. His real name is Ahmed al-Sharaa.
One year later, he is interim president, and Bashar al-Assad is in a gilded exile in Russia. Syria is still in ruins. In every city and village I have visited this last 10 days, people were living in skeletal buildings gutted by war. But for all the new Syria's problems, it feels much lighter without the crushing, cruel weight of the Assads.
Sharaa has found the going easier abroad than at home. He has won the argument with Saudi Arabia and the West that he is Syria's best chance of a stable future.
In May, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia arranged a brief meeting between al-Sharaa and US President Donald Trump. Afterwards, Trump called him a young attractive tough guy. At home, Syrians know his weaknesses and the problems Syria faces better than foreigners. Sharaa's writ does not run in the north-east, where the Kurds are in control, or parts of the south where Syrian Druze, another minority sect, want a separate state backed by their Israeli allies.
On the coast Alawites – Assad's sect – fear a repeat of mass massacres they suffered in March.
A year ago, the new masters of Damascus, like most of the armed rebels in Syria, were Sunni Islamists. Sharaa, their leader, had a long history fighting for al-Qaeda in Iraq, where he had been imprisoned by the Americans, and then was a senior commander with the group that became Islamic State. Later, as he built his power base in Syria, he broke with and fought both IS and al-Qaeda. People who had travelled to Idlib to see him said that he had developed a much more pragmatic set of beliefs, better suited to governing Syria, with its spectrum of religious sects.
In the first week of December last year, it was hard to believe that the HTS offensive was moving so fast. It took them three days to capture Aleppo, Syria's northern powerhouse. A few days after Assad fled with his family to Russia, I interviewed Syria's victorious new leader in the presidential palace.
The UN human rights office (OHCHR) expressed serious concern about the slow pace of justice. Some Syrians have taken matters into their own hands, along with government forces. The OHCHR said that hundreds have been killed over the past year by the security forces and affiliated groups, elements associated with the former government, local armed groups, and unidentified armed individuals.
Many western governments see Sharaa as the best bet to stabilise Syria. His minister for foreign affairs, Assad al-Shaibani, said the aim is to restore a sense of normalcy in a country scarred by the past. However, sectarian tensions remain unresolved.
The government has no rebuilding fund. Reconstruction is up to individuals. Sectarian tensions are unresolved and could ignite again. The US-mediated dialogue with Israel has stalled, and ordinary Syrians continue to seek safety and stability in their lives.
As Umm Mohammad, a local woman poignantly summarized, The future is difficult. We want safety. We go to sleep and wake up afraid.\
