DAMASCUS: 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.
Syria president to speak at UN General Assembly: official
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Syria president to speak at UN General Assembly: official
- 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
Supporters of Tunisia’s Saied rally amid deepening political divisions
- Rights groups have accused Saied of an unprecedented crackdown on the opposition
TUNIS: Tunisian President Kais Saied’s supporters rallied in the capital on Wednesday calling the opposition “traitors,” following mounting street protests in recent weeks that have highlighted widening political divisions.
The rival rallies come amid a deepening economic crisis marked by high inflation, shortages of some basic goods and poor public services, which have fueled public anger.
Rights groups have accused Saied of an unprecedented crackdown on the opposition, saying he is using the judiciary and police to stifle criticism. Saied rejects the accusations, saying he is cleansing the country of traitors and a corrupt elite.
Demonstrators gathered in central Tunis waving national flags and chanting slogans backing Saied, whom they credit with confronting corruption and entrenched political elites.
They accused Saied’s opponents of seeking to destabilize the country, describing them as “traitors.” They chanted “people want Saied again” and “we support the leadership and sovereignty.”
“We are here to rescue Tunisia from traitors and colonial lackeys,” protester Saleh Ghiloufi said.
Saied’s critics say arrests of opposition leaders, civil society groups and journalists underscore an authoritarian turn by the president since he took on extraordinary powers in 2021 to rule by decree.
The powerful UGTT union has called a nationwide strike next month.
A Tunisian court last week sentenced prominent opposition figure Abir Moussi to 12 years in prison, in what critics say is another step toward entrenching Saied’s one-man rule.
While an appeals court last month handed jail terms of up to 45 years to dozens of opposition leaders, business people and lawyers on charges of conspiracy to overthrow Saied.
Saied was elected in 2019 with an overwhelming mandate, but his consolidation of power has alarmed domestic opponents and international partners, who warn Tunisia is retreating from democratic governance.
