The UN says the visit comes ‘at a crucial time for the region’, as it seeks to bolster ties with Syria.A United Nations Security Council (UNSC) delegation has arrived in Syria for its first-ever trip to the country, reported state media, just days before the war-ravaged nation marks the first anniversary of the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.The UNSC delegation arrived via the Jdeidet Yabous border crossing between Lebanon and Syria and “is scheduled to meet a number of Syrian officials” and members of civil society, state news agency SANA reported on Thursday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listShortly afterwards, the agency said the delegation was visiting the capital Damascus’s heavily damaged suburb of Jobar.The diplomats will meet Syria’s new authorities, including President Ahmed al-Sharaa, before visiting neighbouring Lebanon on Friday and Saturday.While the UN works to re-establish itself in Syria, the council recently lifted sanctions against al-Sharaa, a former rebel fighter whose forces led the lightning offensive that ousted Bashar al-Assad last December.The UN has urged an inclusive transition in the multiethnic country. With international legitimacy one of al-Sharaa’s main priorities, the government has been seeking to keep a lid on eruptions of sectarian violence.Last month, the killing of a Bedouin couple just south of the country’s third largest city, Homs, threatened to spark sectarian clashes like the ones reported in coastal areas in March and again in Suwayda in July. However, security forces from the ministries of interior and defence deployed to the area and, in tandem with so …
