Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani attended a U.N. Security Council briefing on Friday, marking the first public appearance by a senior Syrian official in the U.S. since President Bashar Assad was ousted in a swift offensive attack last December.
Earlier in the day, al-Shibani raised Syria’s new flag at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
He is part of a delegation from the newly established government in Damascus, which is seeking relief from long-standing U.S. and allied sanctions imposed after Assad’s violent crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011.
“The brutal policies of that era deepened divisions, forcing families to flee and leaving behind shattered dreams,” al-Shibani told the council. “Today, I stand before you to represent a new Syria.”