Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa with CBS News’s 60 Minutes at the Presidential Palace in Damascus, October 2025
Syria’s President Sharaa Addresses UN General Assembly
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa has spoken with CBS News’s 60 Minutes, his first interview with an American outlet since the fall of the Assad regime last December.
The discussion was broadcast Sunday, a week after Syria held indirect elections — the first in 58 years — for the People’s Assembly.
Sharaa shows CBS’s Margaret Brennan around Jobar in northeast Damascus, destroyed by the regime during the Syrian uprising that began in March 2011.
There are entire generations that have suffered psychological trauma. So it’s very important that the period of liberation gives people new hope for their return and for reconstruction.
Part of the episode is about Sharaa’s background including his leadership of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, which broke with Al Qa’eda in 2016. He responds, “The point is: let’s look at what’s happening now, regardless of what was said in the media. Today we have really saved the people from the oppression that was thrust upon them by the regime.”
Questioned about violence in western Syria in March which killed more than 1,400 people — most of them Alawites like Bashar al-Assad and his inner circle — he pushes back on a UN report about the involvement of Government security personnel.
I believe this is an exaggeration. I believe that Syria is committed to prosecuting anyone who committed crimes against civilians of any parties or any side.
See also Civilians Killed Amid Fighting Between Syria’s Security Forces and Pro-Assad Fighters
Brennan skates over accusations of Government involvement in mass killing in Suweida Province in southern Syria in July. Instead, she asks about Israel’s bombing, including near the Presidential Palace in southern Syria.
Sharaa says of Israel’s declaration that it is “protecting” the Druze population, the majority in Suwayda: “This is a Syrian internal matter.”
Amnesty and UN: Alarm at Attacks on Druze in Southern Syria in July
He maintains that Israel must “retreat from any point” which it has occurred since Assad’s fall.
The episode concludes with Sharaa’s appeal for international help with recovery and reconstruction: “The world watched this tragedy unfold for 14 years and couldn’t do anything to stop this massive crime. So the world today should support Syria.”
Spreading his arms towards the ruins of Jobar, he says, “Anyone who obstructs the lifting of sanctions on Syria is an accomplice to those who committed this crime.”
