Baba UmarUnited Nations, New York — At the UN General Assembly (UNGA), the world saw a confident Syrian President, Ahmed al Sharaa, offer a detailed ledger of his Arab country's rise from the ashes of war and mass destruction.
Unlike his first appearance and brief address at the global podium in 2025, Al Sharaa chose to speak at length on Wednesday, informing the UNGA of Syria's diplomatic rebound and fast revival of national institutions.
"Last year, I said Syria came back; today I say Syria is rising," the Syrian leader told world leaders and diplomats on the second day of the UNGA's General Debate.
He highlighted Syria's transition from conflict to hosting more than 60 diplomatic missions, but warned that Israel was trying to destabilise the country through regular attacks, border incursions, and its decades-long occupation of Golan Heights.
Al Sharaa framed regional tensions – particularly between Israel and Syria – as a contest between "good and evil", arguing that usurped land and violated sanctity leave ordinary people to bear the consequences.
Wars and destructions, he remarked, have demonstrated to Syrian people that "injustice does not continue forever", even when truth does not immediately prevail.
The address was meant to present Syria's trajectory away from war and international isolation towards recovery and stabilisation.
Al Sharaa stated that reconstruction in Syria is going on, emphasising his been reunited from his first ever UNGA speech, weapons had been brought under Damascus' authority, sanctions had been lifted, and the administration is conducting operation against illicit weapons, drug trafficking and new partnerships dedicated to public welfare.
'Regional security has to start in Damascus'
Syria, Al Sharaa said, was back on the diplomatic stage, stressing more than 100 states have engaged with Damascus through roughly 4,000 diplomatic exchanges, the capital had welcomed over 60 diplomatic missions.
Syria has re-established itself as a transit hub for international diplomacy and regional security, he argued, "has to start in Damascus".
He spoke about Damascus’ engagement with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the International Atomic Energy Agency, stating "Syria is no longer isolated" following the lifting of US sanctions, the Caesar Act's repeal, and removal from terror lists.
He also touched on production and economy, saying agriculture has neared self-sufficiency, while services and housing have rebounded. Al Sharaa emphasised that 3.5 million refugees had returned and that Syria had shifted "from crisis to opportunity".
The most critical section of his address focused on the occupied territories.
Al Sharaa stated that Golan Heights "will remain Syrian territory" and that any effort to alter its legal status would be nullified under UN Security Council Resolution 497, which declared Israel’s 1981 annexation "null and void".
"While the world is pleased about our return," he said, Israel continues to launch attacks against Syria and undermine its progress.
He cited approximately 500 air strikes and between 100 and 200 incursions, describing the pattern as "reminiscent of an era that we thought was long gone".
He reaffirmed Syria’s adherence to the 1974 Disengagement Agreement, demanded an Israeli withdrawal, and condemned ongoing Israeli military aggression.
Golan Heights and talks
This statement followed remarks made the previous day at the Atlantic Council event in New York, where he noted that security discussions with Israel had reached "almost 90 percent" agreement before Israel withdrew or introduced new preconditions. At the Council, Al-Sharaa recalled a conversation from his November 2025 White House visit with US President Donald Trump.
When Trump mentioned Israeli control over the Golan Heights, al Sharaa said he joked: "Why don’t you give New Jersey to the Israelis? You don’t own the Golan Heights to give it to them, but you own New Jersey. And I believe that New Jersey is full of Democrats, and they are not voting for Trump. So, it will be good to give it to the Israelis. So at least this is something that you own."
He then immediately added that Trump “doesn’t own the Golan Heights" and that "regardless of this joke, the Golan Heights is owned by its own people. It’s neither the Syrian president or the American president or any other person to abandon them or to give them up to others."
Syria and Israel held US-mediated talks in Jordan and France to halt Israeli attacks and incursions, aiming to revive negotiations towards a broader security accord.
Syria sought Israeli forces' withdrawal to pre-December 8, 2024 lines after Assad’s ouster, but talks stalled and contacts ceased entirely following an Israeli strike on a northern Syrian airbase.
Back in the UNGA, Al Sharaa maintained that sustainable peace necessitates a return to the 1974 lines and that Syrian sovereignty over Golan Heights remains non-negotiable.
He also used Quranic phrasing, affirming that Syria would continue to act "to serve God" and that divine justice rewards integrity and finally concluded on a key theme — that truth remains steadfast, falsehood perishes ultimately, and a country previously seen as a source of crisis has now become an island of opportunity.
