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Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Syria Mourns Death of Walid al-Muallem


Mon 16 Nov 2020 | 12:08 PM
NaDa Mustafa

On Monday, the Syrian cabinet and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates mourned with great sadness the death of Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Walid al-Muallem, who passed away earlier today, at the age of 79.

The funeral prayer will take place at Sa'd ibn Mu'adh mosque. He will be buried at the Mezzeh cemetery in Damascus, according to Sputnik news agency.

It is worth mentioning that, Muallem was appointed the country’s top diplomat in 2006, while he had also served as Syrian Deputy Prime Minister since 2012.

He played a critical role in objecting US foreign intervention in his country.

In his annual address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2019, Muallem said that “tens of thousands of foreign terrorist fighters have been brought to Syria from more than a hundred countries, with the support and cover of States that are known to all”, apparently referring to the US and Turkey, whose military presence in northern Syria has been considered illegal by Damascus.

He had also warned that Western claims of alleged use of chemicals weapons by Damascus served as a pretext to repeat the Iraq war scenario in Syria.