Iran Press/Middle East: Walid Muallem was born into a Sunni family on 13 January 1941 in Damascus. He received primary and secondary education in public schools from 1948 to 1960. Then, he obtained a bachelor of arts degree in economics from Cairo University in 1963.
Given the details of his career, Muallem was a member of the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. He began his career at the foreign ministry in 1964 and served in Syrian Missions to Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Spain and England. Muallem served as Syria's ambassador to Romania from 1975 to 1980. Next, he became the head of authentication and translation department at the Foreign Ministry in 1980, and his term ended in 1984. Later, he served as the head of private offices department from 1984 to 1990. After serving as Syria's ambassador to the United States from 1990 to 2000, Muallem was named as assistant foreign minister in 2000. He was appointed deputy foreign minister in 2005, and given the Lebanese file by Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.
He was appointed as minister of foreign affairs on 11 February 2006 during a cabinet reshuffle in which his predecessor Farouk al-Sharaa became vice-president. Muallem stated in August 2006, "I am ready to be one of Hassan Nasrallahʹs soldiers." He also stated that Syria has a special relationship with Iran. He was involved in Israeli-Syrian negotiations, both before and during his tenure as foreign minister.
In terms of the Syrian Civil War, early in the war, Muallem held frequent press conferences with Syrian media and Arab outlets. In August 2012, Muallem gave his first interview with a Western journalist since the start of the civil war, in English, saying that the United States slogan of "fighting international terrorism when ... supporting this terrorism in Syria" and stating the government's position that the United States was "the major player against Syria" as it sought to contain Iran. He denied the existence of the Shabiha, pro-government, paid militiamen alleged to have committed atrocities early on during the civil war while blaming 60% of Syria's violence on Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia "with the United States exercising its influence over all others.”
In October 2012, after the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged Syria to show compassion in light of the growing humanitarian crisis, Muallem spoke at the United Nations and blamed the United States, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar for "aid[ing] terror" and "blatant interference" in Syria's affairs, mainly by supplying rebel groups with arms and money calling for Bashar al-Assad to step down. He called Western concerns over chemical weapons use "a joke" and a pretext for an Iraq War-like campaign.
In January 2013, after the United Nations and Arab League Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Bashar al-Assad should not take part in a transitional government, Muallem called on opposition groups to join a new cabinet under al-Assad, so long as they "reject foreign intervention."
In February 2016, after Saudi Arabia was planning to send its troops to Syria in order to fight against the Islamic State, Muallem warned that any foreign army soldiers who enter Syria without government consent would "return home in wooden coffins.”
Following the September 2016 Deir ez-Zor air raid which killed up to 100 Syrian soldiers, Muallem said that the Syrian government holds the United States fully responsible because facts show that it was an intentional attack, and not an error, even if the United States claims otherwise.
Muallem was married and had three children. He died on the morning of 16 November 2020 at the age of 79. The cause of his death was not disclosed, but Muallem had been suffering from heart problems for years.
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Syrian FM Walid Muallem dies at 79
