Senior International Policy Advisor and former U.S. Ambassador Barbara Leaf was recently featured in the PBS FRONTLINE documentary, "Syria After Assad", which explores the aftermath of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's fall and the rise of new leader Ahmad al-Sharaa.
Leaf, who led the U.S. State Department delegation that met with al-Sharaa following Assad's ouster, offered a candid assessment of the challenges facing Syria's new leadership. "He's making mistakes," Leaf said, adding that "if he wants a stable Syria, he's going to be compelled to take into account the changed landscape of Syria — changed by 14 years of this brutal civil war — but he has to look at a longer scope of history where these communities were pitted against one another."