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This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross.

The unintentional inclusion of journalist Jeffrey

Goldberg in a messaging app group chat of U.S. national security leaders, outlining U.S.

plans to attack the Houthis in Yemen, has certainly increased awareness of who the Houthis are.

I realize that is not the main takeaway of this story, but it's

kind of where my guest Robert Worth fits in. He has been reporting on the Houthis for over a

decade, most recently in the Atlantic, the same publication where Jeffrey Goldberg serves as

editor-in-chief. Before Goldberg revealed his inclusion in the chat, we invited Robert Worth to talk about his

new article in the Atlantic, which is about Syria's new leader, Ahmed al-Shara.

Shirah is something of a wild card. Maybe he'll bring unity and stability to Syria, which he says is his goal.

But he's a former jihadist and founded the Syrian branch of the Islamist terrorist group Al-Qaeda.

Shirah led the attacks that overthrew the brutal Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad,

and he's now serving as the transitional president of Syria.

He says he wants to maintain peace, create unity, and inclusion, and prevent revenge killings.

Considering the ongoing revenge killings, the conflicts between militia groups and the destruction of 14 years of civil war,

this is going to be a very hard job to do.

Worth's article is titled, Can One Man Hold Syria Together?

A former jihadist has remade himself in a bid to remake a scarred and divided country.

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