Damascus announced the death of Luna al-Shibl, advisor to the Syrian presidency. The Syrian presidency mourned Al-Shibl, who died today as a result of a tragic car accident. Al-Shibl had worked in recent years as the director of the political and media office in the presidency and then as a special advisor in the presidency.
Earlier, sources informed the magazine "Al-Majalla" about the death of President Bashar al-Assad’s advisor days after she was involved in a car accident. Sources confirmed to #AlMajalla the death of #Luna_al-Shibl, advisor to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, on Friday afternoon, after being in a car accident near #Damascus last Tuesday.
Speculations emerged regarding the reasons behind the car accident involving Luna al-Shibl, alongside news about the arrest of her husband, a Baath Party leader Ammar Shaati, and her brother, in addition to members of a spy network consisting of five people. This coincided with reports indicating that Al-Shibl was about to leave Syria for a resort owned by her husband in Russian Sochi before the incident, which resulted from "an armored vehicle colliding with the car she was in on the Damascus-Yafour highway, causing her car to veer into the middle of the road, as the car that hit her was equipped with a metal guard at the front, leading to severe brain hemorrhaging."
Luna al-Shibl was born in 1975 in the city of Suwayda and earned a Master’s degree in journalism and media. She worked in Syrian television and presented programs related to the Golan, including "From the Darkness of Occupation" and "O Allah, Bear Witness," in addition to major talk shows on Syrian television. In 2003, she began her work at Al Jazeera, and on May 25, 2010, she resigned from the channel with four other female presenters, later working at the Syrian channel "Al-Dunya."
She participated with the Syrian regime’s delegation at the Geneva II conference in 2014. In November 2020, President Bashar al-Assad appointed her as a special advisor in the presidency, and her name was mentioned among those targeted by U.S. sanctions. She was married to journalist Sami Kleib, who was a presenter at Al Jazeera before moving to Al-Mayadeen, and after their separation, she married the President of the National Union of Syrian Students and member of the People's Assembly, Ammar Shaati.