German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot with Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Damascus on Friday 3 January 2025.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock said they wanted to forge a new relationship with Syria and called for a peaceful political transition as they met Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Friday.
Beirut- French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock were in the Syrian capital for talks on behalf of the European Union, in the highest-level visit by major Western powers since Islamist-led forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last month.
One of their first stops was Syria‘s notorious Sednaya prison, north of the capital.
Accompanied by White Helmet rescuers, Barrot and Baerbock toured the cells and underground dungeons of Sednaya, an emblem of atrocities committed against Assad’s opponents.
Sednaya was the site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances. An advocacy group said more than 4,000 people were freed from the detention facility when rebel forces took Damascus on December 8.
Speaking to journalists at the French embassy in Damascus shortly after arriving in the Syrian capital from Lebanon, Barrot expressed his hopes for a “sovereign, stable and peaceful” Syria.
It was also a “hope that the aspirations of all Syrians can be realised”, he added, “but it is a fragile hope”.
Later Barrot called on Syria’s new rulers to reach a settlement with Kurdish authorities in the northeast, who fear for the de facto autonomy their administration has enjoyed since early in the civil war.
“A political solution must be reached with France’s allies, the Kurds, so that they are fully integrated into this political process that is beginning today,” Barrot said after meeting civil society representatives in Damascus.
Barrot also urged Syria’s new rulers to swiftly contact a chemical weaponswatchdog so they can inspect and destroy stockpiles belonging to the former authorities.
The visit by the French and German foreign ministers came weeks after rebels, led by the Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), ousted Assad from power. In an interview with FRANCE 24 and a group of foreign journalists last month, HTS chief Ahmed al-Sharaa called on Western nations to lift the international sanctions imposed on the Assad regime.
In a statement issued before leaving for Damascus Friday, Baerbock said her visit was “a clear signal” – on behalf of the EU – to open the way for a “new political beginning between Europe and Syria, between Germany and Syria”, but that lifting sanctions would depend on Syria’s political process going forward.
She added that she was travelling to Syria with an “outstretched hand” after Assad’s ouster and more than 13 years of civil war, which have devastated the country. “We now have a goal in mind that millions of Syrians also long for: that Syria can once again become a respected member of the international community,” she added.
‘Clear expectations’ of Syria’s transition process
Since ousting Assad, HTS have sought to reassure Arab countries and the international community that they will govern on behalf of all Syrians, including the country’s religious minorities.
Western governments have begun to gradually open channels with Sharaa and HTS, a Sunni Muslim group previously affiliated with al Qaeda, and are starting to debate whether to remove the group’s terrorist designation.
Baerbock warned Syria’s new leaders Friday not to establish an Islamist government after the overthrow of longtime ruler al-Assad.
“Europe will support” Syria in its transition but “will not finance new Islamist structures”, Baerbock told reporters, adding: “This is not only in our own security interests but also what I have heard time and again from very many Syrians in Germany… and here in the region.”
Baerbock said she was travelling to Syria to express “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,” said Baerbock.
“But we also hear and see the desire for moderation and for understanding with other important actors,” she added, citing talks with the US-allied Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Baerbock also asked the new regime to avoid “acts of vengeance against groups within the population”, to avoid a long delay before elections, and to avert attempts to Islamise the judicial and education systems.
“This must be our common objective,” she added.
Syria’s new authorities have announced curriculum changes, including scrapping poetry relating to women and love and references to “Gods” in ancient history courses, and interpreting a Quranic verse about those who had angered God and strayed as referring to “Jews and Nasara”, a derogatory term for Christians.
The national anthem has also been removed from school textbooks and the nationalistic phrase “to sacrifice one’s life in defence of his homeland” has been replaced with the Islamist “to sacrifice one’s life for the sake of Allah”.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)