UN Secretary-General Guterres makes first Damascus visit since 2009, pledges support for Syria reconstruction

Jul 25, 2026

UN Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Damascus on July 25, 2026, marking the first visit by a serving UN chief since 2009. Guterres met with transitional President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, pledging UN support for Syria's reconstruction and political transition following the December 2024 ouster of Bashar al-Assad. The landmark visit comes amid severe regional tensions, as Guterres condemned Israeli military incursions in the Golan Heights buffer zone.

Guterres Damascus visit

▪António Guterres is scheduled to address Syria's new transitional parliament on July 27, 2026.
▪António Guterres met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani in Damascus to discuss UN support for Syria's transition and reconstruction.
▪United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Damascus, Syria on July 25, 2026, marking the first visit by a serving UN chief to the country since 2009.

UN-Syria diplomatic re-engagement

▪The United Nations is shifting its engagement with Syria from emergency crisis management through special envoys to direct high-level political dialogue with official state institutions.
▪Several senior UN officials, including rights chief Volker Turk and nuclear watchdog head Rafael Grossi, have visited Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

Golan Heights disengagement agreement

▪António Guterres scheduled a field tour to inspect the UN Disengagement Observer Force stationed in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights buffer zone.
▪Syria and Israel have held direct talks and agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism, though Israeli military operations in southern Syria have continued.
▪Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime, Israel deployed troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone, declaring that the 1974 disengagement agreement had collapsed.

Syrian reconstruction efforts

▪An estimated 15.6 million people in Syria require humanitarian assistance, while 5.5 million remain internally displaced and 6 million remain overseas.
▪António Guterres pledged UN support for Syrian reconstruction, stating that no country can rebuild itself alone after a severe conflict.
▪Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani requested increased international support, particularly from the European Union, to fund reconstruction and close displacement camps.

Transitional governance process

▪Syria's transitional period has been marred by sectarian violence, including the deaths of nearly 1,500 Alawites in the coastal region and hundreds of Druze in the south.
▪Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led the rebel alliance that ousted Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, was under UN Security Council terrorism-related sanctions until November 2025.
▪The United States has lifted most sanctions on Syria, and US President Donald Trump informed Ahmad al-Sharaa of intentions to remove Syria from the state sponsors of terrorism list.

Civil society inclusion

▪The international community has urged Syria's new Islamist authorities to establish strong, effective institutions and a governance system representing all multi-ethnic and multi-confessional groups.
▪António Guterres scheduled meetings with Syrian civil society representatives and women's groups to support an inclusive political process and the drafting of a new constitution.