UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres begins three-day Syria visit, first by a UN chief in 17 years

Arrival and meeting

Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani greeted Guterres and his delegation at Damascus international airport on Saturday morning, state news agency SANA reported. The UN chief then proceeded to the People's Palace, where President Ahmed al-Sharaa received him, although no details of their discussions were immediately released. The two men had previously met at the UN General Assembly in New York in September 2025, when al-Sharaa attended for the first time. Today's arrival marks the first time a UN secretary-general has set foot in Syria since Ban Ki-moon's visit in 2009, two years before the country descended into civil war.

A country emerging from more than a decade of war

Syria's conflict erupted in 2011 and killed more than half a million people before a coalition of Islamist rebel factions, led by al-Sharaa, ousted President Bashar al-Assad in a lightning offensive in December 2024. Al-Sharaa had publicly broken ties with al Qaeda in 2016 and has since sought to present his government as a force for national unity. The international community, however, remains cautious, pushing the new authorities to build strong, inclusive state institutions that can bring together Alawites, Druze, Kurds, Christians, and the Sunni Arab majority. Despite repeated pledges to protect religious minorities, the transition has been shaken by two episodes of sectarian bloodshed. Nearly 1,500 Alawites, the minority sect to which Assad belonged, were killed in the coastal region last year by government-aligned factions. Months later, hundreds of Druze were massacred in the south, further eroding trust among communities that the UN hopes to reconcile.

Guterres's message of support and accountability

Ahead of the trip, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric articulated the visit's core message.

The opportunity now is not only to recover from conflict, but also to lay the foundations for a future for Syria that will be more stable, more inclusive and more prosperous for all Syrians.

Guterres has previously expressed alarm at the violence against Alawites and Druze and called for perpetrators to be held accountable. During his stay, he plans to meet not only government officials but also civil society activists, women's organizations, and representatives of Syria's diverse ethnic and religious groups, Dujarric said. The spokesman added that Guterres would "reaffirm the role of the United Nations is to accompany and support the Syrian people on this journey."

Next steps and regional dimension

The secretary-general's three-day programme includes a visit to the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which monitors the ceasefire line between Syria and Israel in the Golan Heights. The trip signals a high-level re-engagement by the United Nations just over 18 months after Assad's ouster and as Damascus seeks to rebuild international legitimacy. While Guterres's visit is primarily focused on domestic transition, the planned stop at UNDOF highlights the broader regional dimensions that still weigh on Syria's stability.