A year since Assad's fall

Can Syria capitalise on tide of global goodwill?

- Patrick Wintour

If ubiquity and handshakes were the only measures of success, Ahmed al-Sharaa would be diplomat of the year.

Since he formally became president of Syria on 29 January this year, the former leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham - a jihadist group with an al-Qaida lineage - has made a total of 21 public international trips to 13 countries. These include a visit to the UN general assembly, the climate change conference in Brazil, and numerous Arab summits.

In the latest sign of the goodwill directed towards Syria’s rebirth, envoys from all 15 current members of the UN security council were in Damascus last week to mark the anniversary of the fall of Bashar al-Assad. The display of unity was a remarkable moment: since 2011 no issue divided the security council more bitterly than Syria.

The visit was also an acknowledgment of the role Syria and its diaspora can play in bringing stability to the Middle East.

But ultimately the test will be whether Sharaa is able to translate this curiosity and goodwill into something tangible for the Syrian people in terms of lifted sanctions, internal stability and freedom from external meddling, whether by Israel, Iran or Sharaa’s potential ideological partner, Turkey.

On the investment front, overseas pledges are rolling in. Saudi Arabia has promised investments worth more than $6bn (£4.5bn). Qatar is helping revive the oil and gas industry and the final set of US sanctions are likely to be lifted in a vote before Christmas.

But such is the chaos that Syria’s central bank admits it does not know the country’s true GDP.