From terrorist to statesman Syria's new leader faces a daunting task in New York

Not too long ago, Ahmed al-Sharaa - better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani - would have been arrested on arrival in the US.

- Andrew Roth

The former head of Syria’s al-Nusra Front had a $10m (£7m) bounty on his head for organising “multiple terrorist attacks throughout Syria, often targeting civilians.”

This week, however, after toppling the dictator Bashar al-Assad in a lightning offensive last December, he is being feted in New York as he meets world leaders in the first visit to the UN general assembly by a Syrian head of state since 1967.

“For long years we suffered injustice and deprivation and oppression,” said Sharaa, dressed in a grey tailored suit and burgundy tie, as he gave the first address by a Syrian leader to the UN in six decades. “Then we rose in claiming our dignity.”

He faces a daunting task: to cut the figure of a statesman who can assuage concerns about his past, quell fears over the sectarian violence, and navigate tricky regional diplomacy with the US and Israel - while also maintaining the hardline reputation at home that carried him to power.