With the participation of the representative of President al-Assad, late al-Moallem is buried in Damascus

With the participation of the representative of President Bashar Al-Assad, the Minister of Presidency Affairs, Mansour Azzam,  participated with other official and popular attendance, the funeral of late Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Walid al-Moallem.

On November 16, the funeral procession set off from Al-Shami Hospital to the Saad bin Muadh Mosque, where participants prayed over the late minister .He was then buried in the Mezze cemetery.

The funeral was attended by a representative of the Lebanese President, General Michel Aoun, Minister of Social Affairs and Tourism Ramzi Musharrafieh, who offered condolences on behalf of the Lebanese President to the Syrians.

The Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab Socialist Baath Party, Engineer Hilal Al-Hilal, the Ministers of Islamic Trusts, Information, Public Works, Housing and Education, a number of members of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Baath Party, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Dr. Faisal al-Meqdad , the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Dr. Ayman Sousan , a number of members of Parliament, the governor of Damascus and its countryside, and a number of Arab ambassadors participated in the funeral.

Diplomatic missions accredited in Damascus, heads and members of professional unions and popular organizations, official, political, religious and economic figures, and representatives of national and Palestinian parties also participated in the funeral.

The Iranian Ambassador to Damascus, Jawad Turkabadi said that the news of the death of Minister Al-Moallem was sad and painful due to his generous personality and high and great standing within the framework of the axis of resistance and support for bilateral action between Syria and Iran.

The late Minister Al-Moallem is a long-standing diplomat known for his honorable national positions in various arenas of political and diplomatic work.

He was born in Damascus in 1941 and studied in public schools from 1948 until 1960, where he obtained a high school diploma and joined Cairo University and graduated from it in 1963 with a BA in economics.

He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1964 and served In the following missions: “Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Spain, England,”.

He was appointed in 1975 as the Syrian ambassador to the Republic of Romania until 1980, when he was appointed Director of the Documentation and Translation Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1980 until 1984, and then Director of the Department of Private Offices from 1984 Until 1990. 

He was appointed ambassador to the United States from 1990 until 1999, then assistant to the Secretary of State at the beginning of the year 2000.

He was named deputy to the Minister of Foreign Affairs according to Decree No. 8, dated 01/09/2005 and held the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2006.

He was named Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates since the year 2012.

He wrote four books: “Palestine and Armed Peace 1970”, “Syria in the Mandate Period from 1917 to 1948”, “Syria from Independence to Unity from 1948 to 1958”, and “The World and the Middle East in the American Perspective”.

O. al-Mohammad / Inas Abdulkareem