Ahmad al-Sharaa Umayyad Mosque victory speech, Damascus, 8 Dec 2024 (mosaic of sourced verbatim quotes; English translation of Arabic original)

Speaker: Ahmad al-Sharaa (formerly Abu Mohammad al-Julani). Location: Great Umayyad Mosque, Damascus. Occasion: HTS-led takeover of Damascus and fall of the Assad regime. The speech was delivered in Arabic. No publicly available single durable English transcript exists; the following are sourced verbatim segments compiled from Al Jazeera English (8 Dec 2024) and a contemporaneous Arabic-to-English transcription (the source cited by Wikiquote).

[On the victory itself]

"By God, goodness is abundant and far be it from God, far be it from God to let this tyrant oppress all the people of Syria."

"This, my brothers, is a victory through the suffering of the people who languished in prisons."

"We have been fighting, and today we have been rewarded with this victory."

"And praise be to God, on the day Syria recovers, God willing, this will be a new victory for the entire Islamic nation, this will be a new historic victory for the region."

"A new chapter in the history of the region."

[On the Assad regime's record]

"The [al-Assad] regime has imprisoned thousands of its own civilians unjustly and without them committing any crimes."

"Bashar al-Assad spread sectarianism and corruption in the country and left it a farm for Iranian ambitions."

"A playground for Iranian ambitions."

"How many dangers we have avoided by not abandoning Syria, leaving it as a farm for Iranian expansion."

[On the new Syria]

"Today, Syria is being cleansed by the grace of Almighty God."

"Today, Syria belongs to all Syrians."

"We [the Syrian people] are the rightful owners [of this country]."

"There should not be vengeance. Syria is for all Syrians."