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05-01-2025
DAMASCUS: The foreign ministers of Germany and France said they wanted to forge a new relationship with Syria and urged a peaceful transition as they met its de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Friday on behalf of the European Union.
Germany’s Annalena Baerbock and France’s Jean-Noel Barrot are the first ministers from the EU to visit Syria since opposition fighters seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8 and forced President Bashar al-Assad to flee.
The two ministers pressed for an inclusive political transition that includes women and all ethnic and religious groups.
“My trip today…is a clear signal to the Syrians: A new political beginning between Europe and Syria, between Germany and Syria, is possible,” 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.
Barrot, who 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.
Baerbock and Barrot visited Syria’s Saydnaya prison, an emblem of abuses under Assad. “Now it’s up to the international community to help bring justice to the people who have suffered here in this prison of hell,” Baerbock said.
After talks with Al-Sharaa and other officials, Baerbock said lifting EU sanctions will depend on the political process going forward.
She and Barrot traveled to Damascus “to discuss whether such an inclusive political process is possible and whether human rights can truly be guaranteed. The entire question of lifting sanctions is tied to this,” Baerbock said.
“Europe will support” Syria in its transition “but Europe will not finance new Islamist structures,” Baerbock told reporters at the end of her visit.
Al-Sharaa greeted Baerbock and Barrot at the palace entrance, avoiding a handshake with Baerbock but briefly shaking hands with Barrot.
Baerbock has said that the new Syrian government’s relations with Germany and the EU are conditional on women and men of all ethnic and religious beliefs playing a role in Syria’s new political system and that they are protected.
Barrot posted on social media platform X: “Together, France and Germany stand alongside the Syrian people, in all their diversity.”
After arriving in Damascus, Barrot expressed hope for a “sovereign, stable and peaceful” Syria. It was also a “hope that the aspirations of all Syrians can be realized,” he added but “it is a fragile hope.”
One of the first stops on the trip was the notorious Saydnaya prison, dubbed “the human slaughterhouse” by Amnesty International.
Barrot and Baerbock were accompanied by White Helmet rescuers as they toured the cells of the facility.
Volunteers founded the White Helmets in 2013 after the start of the civil war. They helped rescue victims after airstrikes, but were also deployed after Syria and Turkey’s devastating earthquakes in 2023.
Humanitarian groups say Syrian authorities under the Assad regime, systematically tortured and executed thousands of civilians.
“You simply can’t imagine the horror of some places,” Baerbock said but “people have gone through hell here near the Syrian capital Damascus. They were killed using methods that are unimaginable in a civilized world.” (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
