Over the course of a year, Ahmed al-Shara, a former al-Qaeda commander, did the seemingly impossible. He not only toppled a dictatorship that had ruled Syria for half a century but also, upon assuming leadership of the country, convinced Western capitals to lift or suspend most of the sanctions imposed during the time of the old regime, obtained pledges from Arab and Western countries for billions of dollars in investment, and even joined the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State (or

Tag-uri: Islam