Biographical Note

NEW PERMANEnT REPRESENTATIVE OF SYRIA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

 

(Based on information received from the Protocol and Liaison Service.)

The new Permanent Representative of Syria, Mr. Bashar Ja’Afari, presented his credentials to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Ja’Afari had served, since 2004, as Syria’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva.  Prior to that, he was the Director of the Department of International Organizations and Conferences in Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He began his long diplomatic career in his country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry in 1980, and from 1983 to 1988, he served as Attaché and Third Secretary at the Syrian Embassy in Paris.  From 1991 to 1994, he was First Secretary and Counsellor at Syria’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.  And in 1998, he began a four-year stint as the Ministry Plenipotentiary and Charge d’Affaires at the Syrian Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Mr. Ja’Afari was a member of Syria’s delegation to a number of important Arab Group events, including the preparatory meeting of Arab Foreign Affairs Ministers for the sixteenth Arab Summit.  He also accompanied Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad during his official visits to Greece (2003) and China (2004).

Educated in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and in Paris, France and Indonesia, respectively, Mr. Ja’Afari received his Bachelor of Arts in French Literature at Damascus University in 1977.  He received a State Doctorate in Political Science at the University of Paris V-La Sorbonne in 1989, as well as a State Doctorate in History of Islamic Civilization in South East Asia from the University of Sharif Hedayatuallah in Jakarta.

Born on 14 April 1956 in Damascus, he speaks Arabic, French, English and Persian.  He is married and has three children.

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For information media • not an official record