ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – A delegation from the United Nations Security Council arrived in Syria on Thursday, state media reported, in the first-ever visit to Damascus by the body and days before the anniversary of Bashar al-Assad’s toppling. 

The delegation entered Syria from Lebanon through the Jdeidet Yabous border crossing and is set to “hold meetings with a number of Syrian officials and representatives of Syrian civil society, as well as the fact-finding committees investigating the coastal and Suwayda region events,” the state-run SANA news agency said. 

It later met with President Ahmed al-Sharaa, with details of the meeting yet to emerge, and after the Security Council lifted sanctions on the Syrian leader, who formerly led the jihadist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), rooted in the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda. 

“The visit to Syria and Lebanon is the first official visit of the Security Council to the Middle East in six years, the first visit to Syria ever,” Samuel Zbogar, Slovenia’s ambassador to the UN, who currently holds the council’s presidency, said in a Monday presser. 

Zbogar lauded the visit as one that comes “at a crucial time for the region,” saying the council seeks to voice “support and solidarity with both countries.” 

The delegation also visited the Jobar district of Damascus, heavily damaged during the country’s brutal 14-year-long civil war.

On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed hope that the visit “will increase the dialogue between the United Nations and Syria,” according to his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. 

Syria has fallen into sectarian conflict on several occasions since HTS rebels, led by Sharaa, overthrew the Assad regime almost a year ago, with the new authorities having been repeatedly criticized for failing to protect minorities. 

In March, violent clashes broke out between Syrian security forces and Assad loyalists along the western coast of Syria, killing at least 1,400 people, most of whom were Alawite civilians.

Four months later, clashes between Druze fighters and Damascus-backed Bedouin tribesmen killed over 1,600, including over 700 from Suwayda, mostly Druze civilians. 

Kurdish and Druze political components have repeatedly called for a federal government system where all religious and ethnic groups are represented, a demand firmly rejected by the Damascus government that has maintained a centralized stance since its rise to power.