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And diplomatic sources hoped that al-Jaafari, who served as Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, would be the successor to Walid al-Muallem, who died on January 16 after remaining in office for 14 years.
However, some interpreted al-Miqdad’s appointment in place of al-Jaafari as the former being the adjunct professor, and also out of “sectarian” considerations, noting that “al-Jaafari, who became the second man in the Ministry of Foreign Relations would be the “royal minister”, who would keep the most important political files, especially in communications with Iran. And Russia in negotiations with the Syrian opposition. “
Faisal Al-Miqdad hails from the village of Ghasm in Daraa governorate, which was called the “cradle of the Syrian revolution” due to the outbreak of popular protests in March 2011, which soon spread to most of the country before to turn into a bloody civil war.
Al-Miqdad was born in 1954, and has obtained a BA in Literature from the University of Damascus since 1978, and also received a Ph.D. in English Literature from Charles University in Prague in 1993.
He joined the diplomatic corps in 1994, before “joining the Syrian delegation to the United Nations in 1995, and then was appointed permanent representative of Syria to the United Nations in New York in 2003.”
In 2006, he returned to Syria after being appointed deputy foreign minister. He worked closely with the teacher and accompanied him in most of his meetings and conferences. As the teacher’s health deteriorated, Al-Miqdad held some press conferences for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In May 2013, gunmen in Daraa abducted al-Miqdad’s father, who was eighty-four years old, before later releasing him in an exchange agreement with the armed opposition.
“Al-Miqdad graduated from the same school that Walid Al-Muallem graduated from,” Syrian foreign ministry workers told AFP.
He noted that “both participated in the management of the Lebanese file at the most critical moments of the relationship between the two countries,” especially after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005 and the point of impeachment against the Syrian regime.
He described him as a “first-class and quiet reader” and that he “has excellent relations with the Iranians and the Chinese.”
As for the new deputy minister, Bashar al-Jaafari, he was born on April 11 in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and is fluent in Arabic, English, French and Persian with great fluency.
He served as the permanent representative of Syria at the United Nations headquarters in New York in 2006 and is expected to assume his new post within two months.
Al-Jaafari is known for his great cunning, having served for a long time in the diplomatic corps since he joined the Syrian Foreign Ministry in 1980.
He held his first post outside the country in Paris as a diplomatic attaché, and progressed through posts to the presidency of the permanent representative of Syria to the United Nations.
The name al-Jaafari appeared after popular protests in Syria, as he became the mouthpiece of the powerful United Nations system, before leading the regime’s delegation in the multiple rounds of negotiations with the Syrian opposition in Geneva and later in Astana.
Al-Jaafari is distinguished by its strong relationship with Tehran, and Iran’s strongman and defender of its interests is expected to be within the corridors of the Foreign Ministry and the Presidential Palace, and to have the upper hand in managing the archives of negotiations with the opposition and in creating the balance necessary to curb Moscow’s influence in cooperation with Maher al-Assad, Bashar’s brother and closest. Iran’s military allies within the narrow circle of the ruling system.
Al-Jaafari led the Syrian government delegations to the rounds of negotiations with the opposition under the auspices of the United Nations in Geneva, as well as to the Astana negotiations, which are sponsored by Moscow and Tehran, allies of Damascus, and Turkey. , which supports the opposition.
