<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <strong>The Council of Ministers has appointed this Monday the diplomat Antonio González-Zavala as special envoy for Syria, who until now held the position of ambassador on Special Mission for the Sahel.</strong> On December 16, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, confirmed in Brussels the Government's intention to reinforce the Spanish Embassy in Damascus by immediately reinstating the chargé d'affaires and appointing a "special envoy to Syria" with the mission of "transmitting clear red lines" to the new authorities that have emerged from the overthrow of the Bashar al Assad regime. Among the aforementioned “red lines,” Albares mentioned “that the future of Syria be a peaceful future, that what is today a military movement become a political movement (in reference to Hayat Tahrir al Sham, HTS, the armed jihadist group that led the overthrow of Al Assad) and that it be an inclusive future with scrupulous respect for ethnic and religious minorities.” The Embassy was reduced to the bare minimum in 2012 after Spain decided to withdraw its ambassador from Damascus in retaliation for the repressive policy of the Al Assad regime against anti-government protests. Since then, the representation has been headed by a chargé d’affaires with residence in Beirut. A graduate in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid and a member of the Diplomatic Service since 2002, González-Zavala has been serving as Ambassador on Special Mission for the Sahel since June 2024. Previously, he was Spain's ambassador to Guinea-Bissau from 2021 to 2024. Abroad, he has been second in command at the Spanish embassies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Senegal and political advisor in Mexico. He was also Consul General of Spain in Lagos and Quito, and Consul (on commission) in Algiers and Jerusalem. In the central services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, his career has been linked to Development Cooperation policies. At the Spanish Agency for Development Cooperation (AECID), among other responsibilities, he was a member of the Governing Council of the European Agency for Reconstruction of the Balkans. He has also been head of the Support Unit in the Directorate of Cooperation with Africa and Asia and headed the Department of Cooperation with the Arab World and Asia. He has been awarded the NATO Medal for services in Afghanistan, the Military Merit Cross with white insignia, the Order of Civil Merit and the Officer's Cross and the Order of Isabel la Católica.
