Syria’s veteran foreign minister Walid Moalem passed away

Syria’s prime diplomat and long-time government minister Walid Al-Muallem, a staunch defender of Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s bloody suppression on peaceful protesters that sparked a decade old conflict, has died, state TV reported ahead of time Monday.

There were no details on the explanation for death, however the 79-year old had for years been in poor health with heart problems.

Al-Muallem was initial appointed foreign minister in 2006 and conjointly control the post of deputy prime minister.

The veteran diplomat saw his country’s tilt any toward Iran and Russia, that have helped support Assad’s rule and allowed the authoritarian leader to regain most of the territory he once lost to insurgents.

Syria erupted into war nearly a decade past once Assad in 2011 began a brutal suppression on protesters vocation for associate degree finish to his family’s rule.

Al-Muallem defendant Washington and therefore the West of supplying the country’s unrest and tagged armed insurgents as “terrorists” in an exceedingly conflict that has value tens of many thousands of deaths and led to the exodus of variant refugees.