UN Secretary-General António Guterres today appealed to the international community to support the people of Syria at the start of his first visit to the Arab country as UN Chief, nearly two years after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
The visit is the first by a UN Secretary-General to the Syrian capital since 2009. Shortly after his arrival, Mr Guterres held talks with Syria’s interim President, Ahmad al-Sharaa, before taking a tour of the old quarter of Damascus and the famous Umayyad Mosque.
Mr Guterres’ visit comes as Syria continues to recover from the conflict that began in March 2011, which left nearly half a million people dead and caused widespread destruction, with reconstruction expected to cost tens of billions of dollars.
During his visit, Mr Guterres is also scheduled to visit the UN force deployed along the Syria-Israel border.