Syria’s foreign minister raises country’s new flag at UN headquarters
Asaad al-Shibani also attended a UN Security Council briefing.
Syria’s foreign minister has attended a UN Security Council briefing after raising his country’s new flag at the international body’s headquarters.
It was the first public appearance by a high-ranking Syrian government official in the United States since the fall of president Bashar Assad in a lightning rebel offensive in December.
Asaad al-Shibani is in a delegation from Damascus’ new government who have travelled to the US this week in hope of receiving relief from harsh sanctions that were imposed by America and its allies after Mr Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011 that spiralled into a civil war.
“We are open to the international community and look forward to being treated the same way,” Mr al-Shibani said, as reported by state-run news agency Sana. “With the removal of the reason for the sanctions, they must be lifted.”
The presence of a new Syria was in evidence outside the UN headquarters as Mr al-Shibani watched the three-starred flag previously used by opposition groups replace the two-starred flag of the Assad era as the country’s official emblem.
Members of the Security Council, the UN’s most powerful body, welcomed the new interim minister shortly after, saying his attendance is a “positive step” towards a more prosperous Syria.
But many countries and UN officials warned there is still much more work to be done.
“Syria has moved beyond a caretaker government to a new, expanded and more diverse cabinet,” Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, told the council.
“This is an improvement from what went before. Yet it is still not a fully inclusive framework for political transition. And this leaves many Syrians unsure of their place in the emerging new Syria.”
Other Syrian officials attended meetings at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund this week in Washington, but it was unclear if Trump administration officials would meet Mr al-Shibani during the visit.
“The United States continues to closely monitor the actions of the Syrian interim authorities,” Dorothy Shea, the deputy US ambassador to the United Nations, said in her remarks. “We remain hopeful that the interim cabinet announced by the interim authorities at the end of March represents a positive step.”
But, she added, the US expects “to see additional action and the appointment of more qualified and representative individuals to serve in critical positions”.
President Donald Trump’s administration has yet to officially recognise the current Syrian government of Ahmad al-Sharaa, an Islamist former insurgent who led the offensive that toppled Mr Assad.
The Republican administration has also left the Assad-era sanctions in place, although it has provided temporary relief to some restrictions. The militant group that Mr al-Sharaa led, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, remains a US-designated terrorist organisation.
Two Republican members of the US Congress, representatives Marlin Stutzman of Indiana and Cory Mills of Florida, arrived in Damascus last week on an unofficial visit organised by a Syrian-American non-profit group and met Mr al-Sharaa and other government officials.
Mr Mills told the Associated Press before meeting Mr al-Sharaa that “ultimately, it’s going to be the president’s decision” to lift sanctions or not, although he said that “Congress can advise”.
Mr Mills later told Bloomberg News that he had discussed the US conditions for sanctions relief with Mr al-Sharaa, including ensuring the destruction of chemical weapons left over from the Assad era, co-ordinating on counter-terrorism, making a plan to deal with foreign militants who fought alongside the armed opposition to Mr Assad, and providing assurances to Israel that Syria would not pose a threat.
He also said that Mr al-Sharaa had said that Syria could normalise relations with Israel “under the right conditions”, without specifying what those conditions are.
Other western countries have warmed up to the new Syrian authorities more quickly. The UK government on Thursday lifted sanctions against a dozen Syrian entities, including government departments and media outlets, and the European Union has begun to roll back its sanctions.
