Bassam al-Sabbagh

Bassam al-Sabbagh is a Syrian diplomat and politician who served as the Foreign and Expatriates Minister of Syria from 22 September 2024 to 8 December 2024. He is the last person to serve in this position under president Bashar al-Assad and of the Syrian Arab Republic. He also served as Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations in New York City between 2020 and 2023.
Sabbagh is former Syria's permanent representative to the United Nations Office at Vienna the United Nations Office at Vienna, its former permanent representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and its former permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Biography

He was born on 1 January 1969 in Aleppo, Syria. In 1993, graduated from the University of Aleppo as a specialist in international relations, and has a bachelor's degree in political science from the Higher Institute of Political Science in Damascus.
He also served as Syrian Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2020 to 2023. He addressed the General debate of the seventy-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2023. He was appointed as Foreign and Expatriates Minister on 23 September 2024.

1994-1995 - Attaché in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Syria;
1995-2000 - Second, then First Secretary of the Syrian Embassy in Washington;
2000-2001 - Alternate Director in the Office of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs;
2001-2006 - Counselor at the Permanent Mission of Syria to the UN ;
2006-2010 - Head of Administration at the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
2010-2013 - Permanent Representative of Syria to the UN Office.
2010-2020 - Ambassador to Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Italy.
2010-2020 - Resident Representative to the IAEA, UNIDO, UNODC.
2013-2020 - Permanent Representative of Syria to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
2020-2023 - Head of the Syrian Mission at the UN Headquarters in New York.
2023-2024 - Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates
2024-2024 - Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates