DAMASCUS: Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa will address the United Nations General Assembly next month according to a foreign ministry official.
The official stated that Sharaa “will take part in the United Nations General Assembly in New York where he will deliver a speech” while requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to brief the media.
Sharaa assumed power in December after his Islamist group led a coalition that overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad following nearly 14 years of civil war.
“He will be the first Syrian president to speak at the United Nations since former president Nureddin al-Atassi (in 1967), and the first Syrian president ever to take part in the General Assembly’s high-level week” scheduled for September 22-30 according to the official.
Syria’s new authorities have received regional and international support since taking power.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani addressed the United Nations for the first time in April and raised his country’s new flag at the organization’s New York headquarters.
Sharaa met US President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia during May just one week after meeting French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on his initial Western trip.
The interim president remains under United Nations sanctions and a travel ban due to his past as a wanted jihadist requiring exemption requests for all foreign travel. – AFP