DAMASCUS (Dispatches) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Damascus on Saturday for the first visit by a UN chief to Syria since 2009, publicly declaring that “the UN stands with Syria at this pivotal moment” and appealing to the international community to “spare no effort to support the people of Syria”.
Guterres met with de facto president Abu Muhammad al-Jolani at the People’s Palace, toured the Umayyad Mosque, and walked through the Old Quarter. 
The visit comes as the West has rushed to embrace the former Al-Qaeda commander who once carried a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, now rebranded as a “pragmatic” statesman.
The secretary-general’s warm embrace of Jolani’s regime stands in stark contrast to his conspicuous silence on the sectarian massacres carried out by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) forces since they seized power. 
In March 2025, HTS-affiliated gunmen conducted a brutal campaign of executions targeting Alawite civilians in Syria’s coastal areas, going door to door and killing approximately 1,700 civilians, including women and children. Witnesses reported victims subjected to humiliating treatment before execution, with videos circulating online showing the horrific scenes.
The violence did not stop there. Between late December 2024 and June 2025, systematic killings, kidnappings, and enforced disappearances targeted Alawite, Christian, and Druze communities across Homs, Hama, Latakia, and Tartus. 
At least 33 Alawite women and girls were kidnapped, with reports suggesting sectarian retribution and sexual slavery. The Druze community suffered massacres in Suwayda in July 2025, with over 1,500 killed.
Even the UN’s own Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria acknowledged that “violations against civilians are not confined to the past,” documenting extrajudicial killings, abductions, torture, and forced displacement that “mainly affected certain communities, including Alawites, Druze, Christians and Bedouins”. 
The commission found “clear patterns of targeting based on religious affiliation” that “may amount to war crimes” and possibly “crimes against humanity”.
Yet Guterres, during his high-profile visit, offered nothing but solidarity—not a single word demanding accountability for the HTS-led sectarian bloodshed.
The secretary-general’s selective outrage reveals the UN’s subservience to American geopolitical interests. Washington has lifted sanctions on Syria and warmly embraced Jolani. 
The UN, as always, falls in line—prioritizing Western strategic calculations over the protection of Syrian minorities being systematically targeted by a former Al-Qaeda affiliate now repackaged as a legitimate statesman.