Syria names Faisal Mekdad new FM after Walid al-Moallem dies
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has appointed Faisal Mekdad as new foreign minister, replacing Walid al-Moallem who died almost one week ago, according to a statement by the presidency.
Mekdad will be replaced as deputy foreign minister by Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, who in turn, will be replaced by ambassador to Vienna Bassam al-Sabbagh, the statement said on Sunday.
Moallem, a stalwart of the al-Assad government who held his job through a decade of conflict and several reshuffles, died on Monday at the age of 79.
The government announcement did not specify the cause of his death, but his health was understood to have been deteriorating for some time.
His 66-year-old successor, Mekdad, started a career at the Syrian foreign ministry in 1994 and has been deputy foreign minister since 2006.
He accompanied Moallem to most meetings and conferences, and stepped in to make statements when the latter’s health started to deteriorate.
Mekdad, who holds a doctorate in English literature from Charles University in Prague, was born in 1956 in Ghasam village in the southern province of Deraa.
In 1995 he joined the Syrian delegation to the UN, and was his country’s permanent representative to the UN from 2003 to 2006 before he became deputy foreign minister.
In May 2013, gunmen abducted his then-84-year-old father Walid Mekdad before freeing him weeks later in exchange for rebels releasing 43 prisoners.
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