Guterres arrives in Syria for first UN secretary-general visit in over 15 years

Beirut [Lebanon], July 26: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Syria on Saturday, marking the first visit by a UN chief to the country in more than 15 years.
Guterres said on X that he was in Damascus on a "solidarity visit." According to the United Nations, he is scheduled to meet interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa as well as other political officials and representatives from women's organizations.
His itinerary also includes a visit to the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Syrian Golan Heights. The peacekeeping mission monitors a buffer zone of around 235 square kilometres separating Israeli and Syrian forces.
The last time a UN secretary-general visited Syria was in 2009 when Ban Ki-moon travelled there. Guterres himself was last in the country in 2010, at that time still in his role as UN high commissioner for refugees.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Guterres said that he had made a conscious decision not to travel to Syria from the start of the brutal repression of the Syrian people in 2011 until the fall of the regime.
Syria was largely isolated internationally after the outbreak of the civil war in 2011. In late 2024, a rebel alliance led by the Islamist group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (Organization for the Liberation of the Levant, HTS) overthrew the government of Bashar Al-Assad.
Former HTS leader Al-Sharaa has since assumed office as interim president, and the new authorities have sought to rebuild ties with the international community. Most recently, French President Emmanuel Macron became the first European Union head of state to visit Syria in years.
Source: Qatar Tribune