Germany’s Annalena Baerbock offers ‘outstretched hand’, but underlines EU ‘expectations’ on diversity and tolerance.
The French and German foreign ministers have arrived in Damascus to meet Syria’s new rulers, marking the first trip by top European Union officials to the country since the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad last month.
Germany’s Annalena Baerbock and France’s Jean-Noel Barrot will hold talks with Syria’s de-facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also referred to as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, in the Syrian capital on Friday.
Their visit comes as Western governments open channels with al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group with past links to al-Qaeda that led the rebellion against al-Assad, debating whether to remove its terrorist designation.
Barrot landed first in the Syrian capital on Friday morning, having posted on social media platform X that France and Germany stood with the Syrian people “in all their diversity”, voicing support for a “peaceful and demanding transition in the service of the Syrians and for regional stability”.
Ahead of the one-day trip, Baerbock spoke of a “new political beginning” between the EU and Syria, signalling she would arrive 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,” said the foreign minister in a statement. “But we also hear and see the desire for moderation and for understanding with other important actors.”
“A new beginning can only happen if the new Syrian society grants a place in the political process to all Syrians, women and men, of every ethnic or religious group, and provides rights and protection,” she said.
Baerbock specifically asked the new government to avoid “acts of vengeance against groups within the population”, to avoid a long delay before elections, and to avert attempts to introduce religious content into the judicial and education systems.
The new authorities have already announced curriculum changes, including scrapping poetry relating to women and love and references to “Gods” in ancient history courses.
On governance, al-Sharaa recently stated that it could take about three years to present a new draft constitution, and another year until elections.
Baerbock said Germany wanted to overcome “scepticism” about HTS and help Syria return to being “a functioning state with full control over its territory”.
The two ministers will also visit Sednaya prison, the site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances, which epitomised the brutality of the al-Assad family’s decades-long rule.
France and Germany had both already sent lower-level delegations last month.
Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Damascus, said there could be tensions if the EU ministers demand an end to Russia’s military presence in Syria, as the country’s new rulers have expressed a desire to establish good relations with Moscow even though Russia was a staunch ally of al-Assad.
[Syria’s new rulers] see Russia as a balancing power – they think a Syria without Russia would be extremely vulnerable to pressure coming from the Western world; the European Union, the United States and, indirectly, the Israelis,” he said.
However, Serdar said that both sides seem agreed that Iran, also an ally of al-Assad, should no longer be able to wield significant influence in Syria.
“So there are lots of policies that are diverging or converging,” he said. “However, one thing is quite clear here; each delegation visiting Damascus means more and more legitimacy for the new administration.”