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Syria president to speak at UN General Assembly: official

Syria president to speak at UN General Assembly: official
Sharaa will be the first Syrian president to address the assembly since 1967. (FILE/AFP)
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Updated 25 August 2025

Syria president to speak at UN General Assembly: official

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

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 ֱ, 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. 


Israeli military warns residents in three southern Lebanon villages to evacuate designated areas

Israeli military warns residents in three southern Lebanon villages to evacuate designated areas
Updated 4 sec ago

Israeli military warns residents in three southern Lebanon villages to evacuate designated areas

Israeli military warns residents in three southern Lebanon villages to evacuate designated areas
Residents of marked buildings in Aita Al-Jabal, Al-Tayyiba and Tayr Debba were advised to evacuate

DUBAI: Israel’s military warned residents of three villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate areas shown on maps, saying it would attack infrastructure of Lebanon’s Hezbollah in those areas, according to a military spokesperson.
Residents of marked buildings in the villages of Aita Al-Jabal, Al-Tayyiba and Tayr Debba were advised to evacuate, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.