UN chief calls for end of all sanctions on Syria during second day of visit

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for the removal of all sanctions on Syria as he concluded a two-day visit to the country on Sunday.

During his visit, Guterres met senior officials including President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and the speaker of the new transitional parliament which held its first session this month.

Also in Damascus, he met members of the UN peacekeeping force deployed in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, as well as representatives of Syria's civil society, diverse communities, women and young people.

He also visited Sednaya prison near the capital, Syria's most notoriously brutal facility under al-Assad.

Many countries, mainly in the West, imposed sanctions during the era of ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad. Syria's new authorities, who took power in December 2024, are trying to turn the page after more than 13 years of war, and to reboot the economy and rebuild infrastructure and institutions.

Western countries including the United States have announced the easing of sanctions on Syria, but investors have remained cautious, while the World Bank has estimated the country's post-war reconstruction could cost $216 billion (€190 billion).

"I welcome steps that have eased sanctions, and opening new possibilities for economic recovery, but all these sanctions must be removed immediately," Guterres told a press conference in Damascus, concluding what he called a "deeply meaningful and productive visit".

"The United Nations stands with the people of Syria at this pivotal moment. And I came carrying the strongest possible appeal to the international community, an appeal to spare no effort to support the Syrian people and to support the Syrian government," Guterres said.

"Syria needs investment in its people, its economy and its institutions. Syria needs support to restore essential services, rebuild infrastructure, revive livelihoods," he said.

It also needs help "for the safe, voluntary and dignified return of refugees and internally displaced people", he added.

Since Assad's ousting, some 1.7 million refugees have returned to Syria, according to the UN, while around 5.5 million people remain displaced inside the country and six million overseas.

Guterres is the first UN chief to visit Syria since his predecessor Ban Ki-moon in 2009, two years before the start of Syria's war, which killed more than half a million people.

Syria reports fresh Israeli incursion in South

During Guterres' visit, Syrian state media said Israeli forces carried out an incursion into the country's south.

State news agency SANA said that "Israeli occupation forces carried out an incursion early Sunday into the villages of Maariya and Al-Aarda in the Yarmuk basin in the west of Daraa province".

It said the soldiers, accompanied by three military vehicles and a bulldozer, set up a checkpoint in Al-Aarda, and that forces "dropped leaflets in towns in the Yarmuk basin warning residents against closing roads or obstructing the advance of the vehicles".

After the December 2024 overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, Israel sent troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

It has carried out strikes and repeated incursions deeper into Syrian territory.

Israeli officials have said they intend to keep forces in a "security zone" in southern Syria, where they seek a broader demilitarised zone.

Guterres on Saturday said that "violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity are unacceptable and must cease."

"What is happening in the region around the Golan Heights is totally unacceptable," he said, emphasising that "the Golan Heights are Syrian territory."

During a meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Saturday, Guterres reaffirmed the UN's "commitment to Syria's sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity, and expressed deep concern regarding violations by Israel" of the 1974 disengagement agreement, a UN statement said.

Since al-Sharaa took power, the international community has urged the new authorities to establish a governance system that includes all components of Syria's multi-ethnic, multi-confessional society.

"I have no doubt to say this transition is going in the right direction," Guterres said.