Syrian Ambassador to Moscow Bashar Jaafari has requested asylum in Russia

Syrian Ambassador to Moscow Bashar Jaafari has requested asylum in Russia.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by Roded Shlomo Pikiwiki Israel, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/

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"The Syrian ambassador has requested asylum in the Russian Federation," TASS reports citing a source.

Earlier, the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the decision to replace its ambassador in Moscow. According to Abdullah al-Haqi, the media relations coordinator at the Syrian Foreign Ministry, the ministry decided to transfer the ambassadors from Moscow and Riyadh back to the central administration in Damascus.

Al-Haqi told the agency that there are several candidates for the post of head of the diplomatic mission in Moscow.

"We will announce the name of the new ambassador later," he said.

UPDATE: Syrian Ambassador to Moscow Bashar Jaafari later denied information about his request for asylum in Russia.

Details

Bashar Jaafari also Ja'afari, (born April 14, 1956) is a Syrian diplomat. During his tenure as the Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations (PermRep) from 2006 to 2020, Jaafari was notable for his strident defense of the Assad regime during the Syrian civil war, repeatedly denying allegations of human rights abuse and the regime's use of chemical weapons. As PermRep, Jaafari was the Assad regime's lead negotiator during the Syrian peace process with the Syrian opposition. Jaafari was later Deputy Foreign Minister from 2020 to 2022, then Ambassador of Syria to Russia beginning in 2022.