Syrian FM Walid Muallem Dies

Hours ago, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has passed away at the age of 79.

State-run SANA news agency reported in the early hours of Monday, the news citing the ministry.

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 the 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.