Syrian Embassy in Moscow Denies Ambassador Reassignment After Alleged Hack

Syrian diplomat Bashar Jaafari, whose reported reassignment from Moscow was the subject of controversy after a Telegram account linked to the Syrian Embassy was allegedly hacked.
Syrian diplomat Bashar Jaafari, whose reported reassignment from Moscow was the subject of controversy after a Telegram account linked to the Syrian Embassy was allegedly hacked.

By Kardo Roj

MOSCOW, Russia (North Press) – The Syrian Embassy in Moscow has denied publishing a message on its official Telegram channel concerning the reassignment of its ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, claiming on Tuesday that the post was the result of a cyberattack.

The statement followed the circulation of a widely shared Telegram message that claimed the Syrian Foreign Ministry had ordered the reassignment of Jaafari and his counterpart in Riyadh, Ayman Sousan, back to the ministry’s central administration in Damascus. The post included a seemingly celebratory comment directed at Jaafari, describing him as the “lion of diplomacy” and calling on followers to send congratulations to the embassy.

The embassy responded promptly, declaring its Telegram page had been compromised. “The account was subjected to hacking, and the post regarding Ambassador Bashar Jaafari did not originate from the embassy’s staff,” the official statement said. The embassy added it has requested Telegram’s parent company to investigate the breach and disclose the perpetrators.

Despite the embassy’s denial of the Telegram post’s legitimacy, the reassignment itself has been confirmed. Syria’s pro-government newspaper al-Watan reported late Monday, citing a source in the Foreign Ministry, that both ambassadors were officially recalled to the ministry’s central office in Damascus.

The report did not elaborate on the reasons behind the reassignments, nor did it clarify whether they signaled disciplinary action, administrative restructuring, or routine rotation of diplomatic personnel.

Bashar Jaafari, a longtime diplomatic figure known for his fiery rhetoric and staunch defense of Syrian state policies at the United Nations, was appointed ambassador to Russia in 2022 after serving for nearly 15 years as Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York.