UN Security Council delegation visits Syria for first time since 1945

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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A delegation of representatives from the 15 member states of the United Nations Security Council visited Syria Thursday for the first time since the council’s founding in 1945.

The visit comes just ahead of the one-year anniversary of the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in a lightning rebel offensive. It marks the country’s continued reintegration into the international fold under its new government headed by former Islamist insurgent leader and now interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa.

In brief remarks to journalists in Damascus, Samuel Žbogar, permanent representative of Slovenia to the U.N. and president of the Security Council, said the delegation had come to “build trust,” adding that “I hope that today we made a step forward.”

He said the delegation had met with al-Sharaa, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani and other cabinet members. The group also met with local U.N. staff, Syrian civil society and religious leaders, and communities affected by sectarian violence earlier this year on the coast and in southern Syria’s Sweida province.

They also met with the governors of those regions and representatives of the commission for missing persons and committees formed to investigate the sectarian violence, he said.

Žbogar said they discussed topics related to justice, reconciliation, inclusivity and national dialogue in the country’s ongoing political transition, as well as economic development, counter-terrorism and the “need for Syria not to be the source of threat to the security of other countries.”

The delegation, he said, reiterated the international community’s support for Syria’s “sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity.”

Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said the delegation also visited the heavily war-damaged Damascus suburb of Jobar and historic sites in old Damascus.

It noted that Security Council visits are rare because they require unanimous agreement among the 15 members.