NEW YORK CITY: Syria’s intelligence chief, Hussein Al-Salama, said on Monday that Damascus had shifted from “managing crises” to “building sustainable stability” since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, but warned that Israeli incursions and shelling continue to threaten that stability.
Al-Salama, the director of Syria’s General Intelligence Service, was addressing the Fourth UN High-Level Conference of Heads of Counter-Terrorism Agencies of Member States at the UN headquarters in New York as part of Counter-Terrorism Week, ahead of the General Assembly’s ninth review of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy on July 1 and 2.
He said Syria had “regained its sovereignty and its independent decision making” and was rebuilding national institutions after the “criminal practices of the former regime” turned the country into “a fertile environment for extremism and terrorism.”
He said Syrians were now returning home to “a safe haven” rather than fleeing abroad. He listed the country’s priorities as safeguarding national security, contributing to regional stability and engaging in international counterterrorism efforts, as well as cutting off sources of extremist financing, and enhancing security, judicial and intelligence cooperation with foreign partners.
Syria still faces threats from Daesh remnants, cells linked to the former Assad regime and groups affiliated with Hezbollah, Al-Salama said, in addition to “the ongoing Israeli threat to its stability,” including incursions, shelling and the arrest of civilians.
On Sunday there was renewed Israeli shelling and a ground incursion into the village of Abidin in Daraa province’s Yarmouk Basin, where local sources reported that Israeli forces set up checkpoints, searched residents and fired warning shots, according to Syrian state media.
The incident was the latest in a pattern of near-weekly incursions into southern Syria that persist despite intermittent Syrian-Israeli security talks.
Al-Salama called for international support to help to rebuild Syria’s institutions, rather than “short-term relief projects that leave no lasting impact,” and pledged that his country would continue its efforts to combat terrorism “in accordance with its national priorities and in conformity with international law.”
