Just days before the country’s first anniversary of Bashar al-Assad’s ousting, a UNSC delegation made its first-ever visit to Syria, according to state media.
According to state news agency SANA, the UNSC delegation “is scheduled to meet a number of Syrian officials” and members of civil society who arrived via the Jdeidet Yabous border crossing between Lebanon and Syria on Thursday.
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The delegation was later informed that it was traveling to Jobar, Damascus’s severely damaged suburb, in the capital.
Before making a Friday and Saturday visit to neighboring Lebanon, the diplomats will meet with President Ahmed al-Sharaa and the new Syrian government.
Assed Baig, a journalist for Al Jazeera from Damascus, reported that the UNSC delegation would also visit some of Damascus’s historical sites.
As the country moves into the first stages of post-civil war reconstruction, “This gives them]the UNSC delegation] the opportunity to look at Syria away from the political and military dynamics,” says the UNSC delegation.
According to Baig, the UNSC visit has been “very well” received in Syria.
It merely explains to everyone that Syria is working to reestablish itself on the international stage and is attempting to establish diplomatic relations with the UN. It enjoys the support of Arab regional and neighboring nations. The United States backs it, in fact.
According to Baig, the country’s humanitarian situation will also be covered during the visit because “many people are still internally displaced in the country” and “many parts of the country continue to be affected by the destruction caused by the civil war.”
The council recently lifted sanctions against al-Sharaa, a former rebel fighter whose forces led the lightning offensive that ended Bashar al-Assad in December, as the UN works to reestablish itself in Syria.
The multiethnic nation has been urged by the UN to have an inclusive transition. The government has been attempting to stop sectarian violence because international legitimacy is one of its top priorities.
The killing of a Bedouin couple south of Homs, the third-largest city in the country, last month was expected to cause sectarian conflict similar to those that occurred in Suwayda in July and in coastal areas in March. However, security forces from the interior and defense ministries traveled to the area and calmed the tension in a partnership with some tribal leaders.
Despite claims made by al-Sharaa’s government that it is not planning to hostiliate Israel, the nation that has been devastated by 14 years of bloody civil war has also had to contend with more vicious, frequent, and violent Israeli military incursions since it has occupied southern Syria recently.
Most recently, 13 people were killed in a recent Israeli raid in Beit Jinn, southwest of Damascus, on Wednesday.
Following the 1967 conflict, Israel seized control of the Syrian Golan Heights and has held it ever since. However, Israel violated a 1974 accord and once more invaded its neighbor’s territory, occupying more land along the border as a “buffer zone,” including the strategically located Jabal al-Sheikh, a mountain that looms over northern Israel and southern Syria.
Israeli-Syria has been in talks for months over a security deal, but it seems like nothing has changed in recent weeks.
The UN’s first official visit to the Middle East in six years, according to Slovenian UN ambassador Samuel Zbogar, who spoke at a press conference on Monday.
Slovenia currently serves as the UNSC’s rotating president.
Zbogar noted the new authorities’ efforts to transition Syria and a year-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, both of which are “at a crucial time for the region” and “for both countries,” according to Zbogar, noting the trip’s “events that we see daily that is being challenged.”
The visit is crucial for “sharing our support and solidarity with both countries, learning about the challenges, conveying the messages, and also, conveying the messages that the council would like to see in both countries,” he continued.
He noted that “we try to break into the UN-Syria relationship with this visit by a little bit of trust.”
According to Baig, “both sides are looking to take advantage of this visit.”
The [Syrian] government wants to talk about the humanitarian aid coming to the country and reconstruction, according to the UN, but they also want support and solidarity.
On the other hand, the UN “wants to talk about the country’s] politics going forward, how this country is going to rebuild itself, and how Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government will have an inclusive government that will represent all the various factions, ethnicities, and people in Syria.”
