Syria’s interim president, a onetime Al-Qaeda leader and former U.S. detainee, was interviewed this week by the man who oversaw the forces that captured him, former CIA Director and former Army Gen. David Petraeus. Al-Sharaa is set to be the first Syrian leader to address the UN in 58 years as he works to clean up his image after leading a Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate for approximately four years. Al-Sharaa led a rebel alliance to overthrow former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 while heading Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamic fundamentalist militant group. “At a time, we were in combat and now we move to discourse,” al-Sharaa said about his history with Petraeus during the interview. Al-Sharaa acknowledged that “maybe there were mistakes” when he was the leader of an Al-Qaeda branch in Syria, but said he was committed to stabilizing Syria nonetheless.