Syrian Foreign Minister, Asaad al-Shibani, announced the start of restructuring Syrian embassies and diplomatic missions abroad.
Al-Shibani stated via “X” today, Tuesday, April 8, “Following instructions from President Ahmed al-Sharaa, we have begun restructuring our embassies and diplomatic missions.”
He attributed this move to achieving a respectable representation of the Syrian Arab Republic and providing distinguished services to Syrian citizens abroad.
This announcement comes after the Syrian Foreign Ministry decided to transfer the ambassadors of Syria in Russia and Saudi Arabia to the central administration in Damascus.
A responsible source in the Syrian Foreign Ministry mentioned that the Foreign Minister issued a decision to return Syria’s Ambassador to Russia, Bashar Jaafari, and to Saudi Arabia, Ayman Soussan, to the central administration in Damascus, within the framework of a recent diplomatic reshuffle, without specifying whether it includes other positions in the diplomatic corps.
The source indicated that the affairs of the embassies in Moscow and Riyadh would be managed by chargés d’affaires until official appointments are issued by the President to name replacements for the positions in the upcoming period.
Denial and then retractation
Following this move, a statement was published on the Syrian embassy’s account in Moscow via Telegram, denying such a decision and clarifying that Ambassador Jaafari is still in office. However, the embassy in Moscow later published a statement saying that its page had been “hacked” and news related to Jaafari was posted, denying the publication of the mentioned news and urging Telegram management to reveal the identities of the perpetrators of the “hacking.”
After the ousting of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on December 8, 2024, the ambassadors appointed by al-Assad remained in their positions, following the formation of an interim government and then a transitional government, with Ahmed al-Sharaa assuming the presidency for the transitional phase in Syria.
Despite the presence of ambassadors from Assad’s regime in various countries before its fall, except for Qatar, which granted the Syrian embassy to the Syrian opposition (the current government) from the beginning of the revolution, some ambassadors were known for their fierce defense of the regime in international forums, as evidenced by their statements and political activity, including Bashar Jaafari, Ayman Soussan, and Qusay al-Dahhak, Syria’s permanent ambassador to the United Nations in New York since December 2023, after serving as deputy ambassador between 2020 and 2023.
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