The last time the president of Syria addressed the United Nations General Assembly, the Beatles were releasing their Sgt. Pepper’s album, Lyndon B. Johnson was president and the most-watched prime time TV offering in the United States was “The Andy Griffith Show.”
So when President Ahmed al-Shara speaks to the body on Wednesday, he will seek to present an updated picture of his turbulent Arab nation, he recently told journalists and researchers in the Syrian capital, Damascus.
“Our priority is to define Syria’s new state,” said Mr. al-Shara, a former Islamist rebel commander who led the forces who ousted his predecessor, Bashar al-Assad, last year. “Syria needs to be defined in a new way.”
Mr. al-Shara’s presidency ended a 13-year civil war that left cities in ruins, displaced half of the population and killed more than 500,000 people.
Now the world should stop associating Syria with conflict, refugees and illicit drugs, Mr. al-Shara said. His government has cracked down on the production and export of illegal drugs, is open for refugees to return and is cooperating with international bodies on issues like clearing the country of chemical weapons.
Mr. al-Shara is an unusual figure to be addressing global leaders at the General Assembly. After joining the insurgency against the United States forces who invaded Iraq in 2003, he founded a branch of Al Qaeda in Syria. He broke with the terrorist group in 2016 and has adopted more moderate stances since, but he may well be the first head of state to address the United Nations who is still on its sanctions list for terrorism.
The last Syrian president to address the body was Nureddin al-Atassi in 1967.
Israel had just inflicted a painful victory on Syria and other Arab states in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 (sometimes called the Six-Day War), during which its forces occupied the Golan Heights, a strategic highland in southern Syria. Israel later annexed the territory, whose status remains disputed.
To protest perceived pro-Israel bias in the United Nations, Syrian presidents stopped addressing the General Assembly after that, although Syria remained a member of the global body and its diplomats participated in its meetings.
In 1970, Mr. al-Atassi was ousted by Mr. al-Assad’s father, Hafez, who ruled Syria until Bashar came to power in 2000.
Since toppling Bashar al-Assad, Mr. al-Shara has sought to rebuild and expand Syria’s foreign relations and has met with the heads of state of Saudi Arabia, the United States and other countries, some of which were hostile to his predecessor.
He is now working to improve security and develop Syria’s economy. He has said that other nations should see Syria not as a threat but as an opportunity to invest and promote regional stability.
“Syria has turned 180 degrees from the state it was in,” he said.
Ben Hubbard is the Istanbul bureau chief, covering Turkey and the surrounding region.
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