Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City on September 24, 2025. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP)
New York: Syrian President Ahmed Al Sharaa has appealed with the international community to pitch in and support Syria in confronting the current challenges.
He lavished praise on the positions of the State of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, all Arab and Islamic nations, the United States, and the European Union in supporting the Syrian cause by standing together with the Syrians on the path toward peace and prosperity.
Addressing the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Al Sharaa said the Syrian story is a narrative where emotions surge and pain intertwines with hope.
It is a tale of struggle between good and sheer evil, and of the weak truth with no supporter except God, versus the powerful falsehood possessing all tools of killing and destruction. And it is a lesson from history and a true representation of noble human values.
Al Sharaa noted that the previous regime killed about a million Syrians and destroyed two million homes, affirming that he came from Damascus, the capital of history and the cradle of civilizations, that beautiful land which taught the world the meaning of civilization, the value of humanity, and the essence of peaceful coexistence, becoming a beacon for the world to emulate.
Yet, Syria, for the past 60 years, has languished under the yoke of a tyrannical and oppressive regime, one that disregards the worth of the land it rules and subjugates a friendly and peaceable people, Al Shara said, pointing out that today Syria has become a nation representing opportunities for peace and stability in the region.
He evinced that the erstwhile regime leveraged the most heinous instruments of torture and killing in its war against the Syrian people, barrel bombs, chemical weapons, prison torture, forced displacement, and the stirring of sectarian and ethnic strife.
The regime even used narcotics as a weapon against the people and the world. The weak populace, he said, was targeted with chemical weapons in 200-plus documented attacks, with women, children, and young people inhaling poisonous gases, he said.
Al Sharaa further noted that the erstwhile regime perpetrated all these atrocities to muzzle the voice of truth. And despite this torrent of criminality, it extinguished any political avenue for a solution, notwithstanding what had been offered to it.
He stated that Syria's unique achievement and the cohesion of its people prompted certain parties to attempt to stir sectarian strife and internal clashes, seeking schemes of division and the dismemberment of the nation once again.
Yet, he stressed, the Syrian people wielded the awareness and resilience to prevent the continuation of calamities and to stop Syria from returning to its original perilous state.
The Syrian nation had worked to form fact-finding committees and had granted the UN permission to conduct its own investigations, reaching conclusions that were largely consistent with an unprecedented level of transparency in Syria, highlighted Al Sharaa.
He pledged to bring to justice all those whose hands were stained with the blood of innocents, emphasizing that Israeli threats against Syria have not abated since Dec. 8.
The Israeli policies operate in defiance of the international stance supporting Syria and its people, attempting to exploit the transitional phase, thereby exposing the region to a vortex of new conflicts whose end no one can foresee, Al Shara warned.
Al Sharaa further assured that Syria, and its people are moving full steam ahead to hold the elections of the representatives of the Syrian people to the People's Assembly, following the comprehensive restructuring of civil and military institutions through the dissolution of all previous formations under the principle of monopolizing arms in the hands of the state, calling for lifting all sanctions imposed on his country.
