ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' spokesperson on Thursday highlighted the rights of minorities and linguistic diversity ahead of his visit to Syria.
"We strongly believe in the importance of linguistic diversity, as the Secretary-General has said... in many different contexts, where countries where they are large minorities of of people, is that minority population countries need to be need to be respected, and they also need to be made to feel that they are part of the whole," Stephane Dujarric told Rudaw's Namo Abdulla during a press briefing.
The remark came as a response to a question regarding Kurdish rights to mother tongue education in Syria, which has largely been denied by the interim government in Damascus.
Guterres is expected to arrive in Damascus later this week, meeting with the transitional government's top officials, including interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The trip would mark the first visit by a UN chief to the country since 2009.
When asked if Guterres plans to meet with Mazloum Abdi, commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Dujarric replied, "We will have more clarity on who he's meeting once he's met them."
He added, "The program is still being established. It is the Secretary-General's intention to meet with as wide of a variety of Syrian voices as possible in the short amount of time that he will be in Damascus and in the Damascus area."
A UN statement said on Wednesday that Guterres plans to meet with Sharaa and Syria's foreign minister, as well as "representatives of civil society, women's organizations and diverse communities."
Over a million Syrians have returned to the country since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime, according to UN data.
