Germany’s Annalena Baerbock and France’s Jean-Noel Barrot are the first ministers from the EU to visit Syria since rebels seized control of Damascus on December 8 and forced President Bashar al-Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war, ending his family’s decades-long rule.
“My trip today … is a clear signal to the Syrians: a new political beginning between Europe and Syria, between Germany and Syria, is possible,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said before she left for Damascus.
Barrot expressed his hope “for a sovereign, stable and peaceful Syria” after arriving in Damascus, where he also visited the French embassy, which has been closed since 2012.
Since ousting Assad, Islamist rebels led by Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have sought to reassure Arab countries and the international community that they will govern on behalf of all Syrians and not export Islamist revolution.
Western governments have begun to gradually open channels with Sharaa and HTS, a Sunni Muslim group previously affiliated with al-Qaeda and Islamic State, and are starting to debate whether to remove the group’s terrorist designation.
A host of questions remain about the future of a multi-ethnic country where foreign states including Turkey and Russia have strong and potentially competing interests.
Baerbock said she was travelling to Syria with an “outstretched hand” as well as “clear expectations” of the new rulers, who she said would be judged by their actions.
“We know where the HTS comes from ideologically, what it has done in the past,” Baerbock said.
“But we also hear and see the desire for moderation and for understanding with other important actors,” she added, citing talks with US-allied Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces.
The goal now is for Syria to once again become a respected member of the international community, she said.
“France is committed to a plural Syria in which everyone’s rights are preserved within the framework of common citizenship,” French diplomatic sources quoted Barrot as saying as he met with Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch Greek Orthodox and other Christian leaders in Damascus.
Barrot, who also met with the Syrian staff who looked after the French embassy’s closed facilities, said France would work towards re-establishing diplomatic representation in line with political and security conditions, diplomatic sources said.
The ministers will also meet representatives of Syrian civil society and visit Syria’s most notorious prison, the vast Sednaya complex.
