This is CBS Iron the World. I'm John Batchel. I welcome my colleague Akhmad Shirari of the Foundation for

Defense of Democracies to help me interpret the remarks by the self-named president of Syria, Al-Shara,

appearing before the United Nations General Assembly in New York,

the headline from AP, for the first time in nearly six decades, a Syrian president steps

up to speak to the U.N., not just a Syrian president, but a man with a storied past.

Akamara, very good evening to you, your impressions and then the impressions of the people in Syria, because I understand it

was made available to those in Damascus who had an interest.

Al-Shara, from my review of a couple of video packages, was a very good imitation of a seasoned statesman.

How did he strike you?

Good evening to you.

Good evening, John.

As expected, I thought Charra would focus on asking the international community, first of all,

emphasizing Syria's return to the international

fold in his speech and that his victory over Assad meant that Syria got back into the

international fold after 60 years of alienation. And basically, his speech concentrated on asking the international community to give the

Syrians and the new Syrian government a chance to rebuild their country to stabilize

through international support, through sanctions relief.

And so, I mean, it wasn't a long speech compared to, or it was compared to other world leaders, but he mainly focused on these key ideas.

How it was received in Syria, I think a lot of people gave shut up praise for his speech.

Again, most Syrians have never seen their leader give a speech at the UN.

So this was a this was a change, a positive change in their eyes.

But again, I think the main point behind his visit to the UN or this week was to make this speech and also meet with world leaders on the sidelines of the UN to gain this international recognition.

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