Syria president to speak at UN General Assembly: official

DAMASCUS (AFP): Syria’s interim president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, will speak at the United Nations General Assembly next month, a foreign ministry official told AFP on Monday, the first Syrian leader to do so in decades.

Sharaa “will take part in the United Nations General Assembly in New York where he will deliver a speech,” the official said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.

Sharaa took power in December after his Islamist group led a coalition of forces that toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad after nearly 14 years of gruelling 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, the official added.

Since taking power, Syria’s new authorities have gained regional and international support.

In April, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani addressed the United Nations for the first time and raised his country’s new flag at the body’s New York headquarters.

Sharaa met US President Donald Trump in May in Saudi Arabia, a week after meeting French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on his first trip to the West.

Sharaa remains under United Nations sanctions and a travel ban due to his past as a wanted jihadist, and must request an exemption for all foreign trips.