Syria's foreign minister attended a U.N. Security Council briefing Friday after raising his country’s new flag at the international body's headquarters. It was the first public appearance by a high-ranking Syrian government official in the United States since the fall of President Bashar Assad in a lightning rebel offensive in December.
Asaad al-Shibani is in a delegation of authorities from Damascus' new government who have traveled to the United States this week in hopes of receiving relief from harsh sanctions that were imposed by America and its allies after Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011 that spiraled into a civil war.
