LONDON: Antonio Guterres will become the first UN secretary-general to visit Syria since 2009 when he travels there this week for meetings with officials and to endorse the political changes in the country since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024.
“I’m pleased to inform the Security Council that the secretary-general will travel to Syria later this week at the invitation of the government,” the UN’s deputy special envoy for the country, Claudio Cordone, told council members on Tuesday during their monthly meeting to discuss developments in the country.
Guterres will hold talks with the interim president of the Syrian Arab Republic, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani, and representatives of civil society organizations.
“Throughout his stay he will reaffirm the United Nations’ commitment to supporting the Syrian government and the Syrian people at this defining period in Syria’s history,” Cordone said.
The last UN chief to visit Damascus was Ban Ki-moon in January 2009, before the civil war that began in 2011 and ended in 2024 when President Bashar Assad and his regime were toppled in the face of an opposition offensive.
