President of Syria Ahmad Al-Sharaa speaks during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the United Nations headquarters. AFP
Al-Sharaa declared that Syria was returning to the international community after six decades of dictatorship that, he said, killed one million people and tortured hundreds of thousands.
“Syria is reclaiming its rightful place among the nations of the world,” he told the assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders.
The Syrian president became the first head of state from Damascus to address the UN since Noureddine Attasi delivered a speech in 1967, shortly after the Arab-Israeli war in which Syria lost control of the Golan Heights, a territory later annexed by Israel in 1981.
The Assad family dynasty’s half-century of autocratic and repressive rule came to an abrupt end in December, when then-president Bashar al-Assad was ousted in a lightning insurgent offensive led by al-Sharaa. Assad’s fall brought to a close nearly 14 years of civil war.
In his speech, al-Sharaa accused Israel of continuing to threaten Syria even after Assad’s downfall, warning that such policies “contradict the international community’s support to Syria and its people,” endanger the wider region, and could ignite conflicts whose outcomes “no one knows how they could end.”
Negotiations are underway for a security deal that al-Sharaa hopes will lead to a withdrawal of Israeli forces and a return to the 1974 disengagement agreement. While the Syrian leader said last week that an agreement could be reached within days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in remarks on Sunday, appeared to play down the chances of a breakthrough.
Al-Sharaa warned that continued Israeli raids on Syrian territory risked sparking a new conflict. At the same time, he pledged accountability for crimes committed during Syria’s brutal civil war.
“I guarantee to bring to justice and hold everyone accountable who was responsible for the bloodshed,” he vowed.
“In this context, Israeli strikes and attacks against my country continue, contradicting the international support for Syria and threatening new crises,” he said.
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