Asaad al-Shaibani | |
---|---|
أسعد الشيباني | |
![]() Al-Shaibani in 2025 | |
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates | |
Assumed office 21 December 2024 | |
President | Ahmed al-Sharaa [a] |
Prime Minister | Mohammed al-Bashir (2024–2025) |
Preceded by | Bassam al-Sabbagh |
Personal details | |
Born | 1987 (age 37–38) Abu Ra'asin,Al-Hasakah,Syria |
Political party | Independent (since 2025) |
Other political affiliations | Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (until 2025) |
Alma mater | Damascus University (BA) Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University (MA) |
Profession | Politician,Diplomat |
Military service | |
Allegiance |
Formerly
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Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani [b] is a Syrian diplomat and politician who is currently serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates in the Syrian transitional government since 21 December 2024 following the fall of the Assad regime. [1] [2]
Al-Shaibani was born in 1987 to an Arab family belonging to the Banu Shayban tribe from the eastern countryside of al-Hasakah Governorate. [3] [4] [5]
He moved with his family to reside in Damascus and graduated from Damascus University in 2009 with a degree in English Language and Literature from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. [6] [5]
He earned a master's degree in Political Science and International Relations from Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University in 2022 and was pursuing a PhD in the same field until 2024. [4] He is also completing the final stage of an MBA program from an American university. [5]
Al-Shaibani was an active participant in the 2011 Syrian revolution. During the Syrian Civil War, al-Shaibani was a founding member of the Nusrah Front, the al-Qaeda branch in Syria, alongside Ahmed al-Sharaa, with whom he became close. He headed the Nusrah Front's foreign relations when the Nusrah Front transitioned into Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). [7]
During the war, al-Shaibani operated under aliases, including "Naseem", "Abu Aisha", "Abu Ammar al-Shami", "Hussam al-Shafi'i", and most notably "Zaid al-Attar". Before his current role, he participated in founding the Syrian Salvation Government in 2017, establishing and heading up its Political Affairs Administration. In this role, he engaged with representatives from the United Nations, major international organizations, and diplomatic officials. [4] [8]
On 21 December 2024, al-Shaibani was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates in the Syrian caretaker government formed following the fall of the Assad regime. [1]
He immediately began shaping the foreign policy and diplomatic relations of the new government, which adopted a different approach from the previous Ba'athist regime. [9] He also attended international meetings that the former government had been barred from due to the diplomatic isolation resulting from the Syrian civil war, which stemmed from the Ba'athist regime’s violent crackdown on the 2011 Syrian revolution. [10] [11]
Al-Shaibani undertook diplomatic visits to various countries, including Gulf states, [12] [13] and most notably Turkey, with whom relations had been severed for nearly 14 years. [14] [15] He also visited the headquarters of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, during which he pledged that the Syrian government would destroy any remaining chemical weapons in the country. [16]
He also participated in key international forums such as the 2025 Riyadh meetings on Syria, [17] the 2025 World Economic Forum in Davos, [18] and the 2025 Munich Security Conference. [19] He continues to work to rebuild relations with Western and global partners while consistently advocating for the lifting of sanctions on Syria. [20] [21]
On 29 March 2025, a transitional government was formed, in which al-Shaibani maintained his position. [22] On 10 April 2025, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul visited Damascus and met with al-Shaibani. During the meeting, both sides signed a formal agreement to establish diplomatic relations, which included plans to open embassies and exchange diplomatic missions. [23] [24] The agreement made Syria the last United Nations member state, outside of North Korea, to establish diplomatic relations with South Korea. [25] On 15 May 2025, al-Shaibani held a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Antalya, Turkey. [26] The meeting took place two days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced his decision to lift sanctions on Syria and initiate the normalization of bilateral relations. [27]
In July 2025, al-Shaibani became the first official of the post-Assad Syrian government to visit Russia, where he held meetings with foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and president Vladimir Putin in Moscow. [28]