OTHER LEADERS EMERGE OTHER THAN HTS IN THE FAST MOVING SYRIAN LANDSCAPE

 HTS leader not only player in Syria's fast-changing future

Image source,EPA

"They arrived here worried about the Islamists," is how one source described the mood of Arab foreign ministers who flew into Doha on Saturday evening for urgent talks aimed at averting a collapse into chaos and bloodshed in Damascus.

Within hours, the powerful Islamist group driving the rebels' rise to power reported they had reached the centre of the Syrian capital.

The leader of Hayat Tahrir-al Shams, Abu Mohammad al-Jowlani, triumphantly announced "the capture of Damascus". Now he's using his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, rather than his nom de guerre as a sign of his sudden rise to a much greater national role.

He's certain to play a decisive part in defining Syria's new order after this sudden stunning end to a half century of repressive rule by the Assad family. But the leader of an organisation proscribed by the UN as well as western governments is not the only pivotal player on Syria's fast shifting scene.

FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0kv582lpnro