Syria Mourns Death of Foreign Minister, Deputy PM Walid Muallem

According to the Syrian news agency SANA, Muallem died at dawn on Monday and was laid to rest later on Monday in Damascus.

Although no details were provided for the cause of death, Muallem has been suffering from a heart condition for years.

According to sources close to Damascus's government, Faisal Mekdad is expected to be named Syria's new Foreign Minister.

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The veteran diplomat has held several top diplomatic posts, including ambassador to the United States, and became the nation's foreign minister in 2006 and deputy prime minister in 2012.

In his last public statements, the diplomat denounced the unilateral economic sanctions against Syria imposed by the United States, saying on October 25 that these deadly measures have worsened the country's financial situation, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Muallem had also recently denounced the West's conditions and flimsy pretexts to halt Syrian refugees' return to their homeland, criticizing Western nations for politicizing the humanitarian issue and their use of the crisis to advance their political interests. Aside from the more 5.6 million Syrians who have been forced to flee into neighboring Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq, more than 1 million Syrian children have been born as refugees since the foreign-backed militancy began in their country in 2011. 

Despite these significant setbacks, Syrian government forces have managed to undo militant gains nationwide and successfully brought back almost all of the Syrian soil under control.