News about Syria and Israel: Foreign Minister Baerbock travels to Damascus

Almost four weeks after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock traveled to Syria for an unannounced visit. The Green politician flew from Cyprus to Damascus in the morning, where she arrived in a Bundeswehr propeller transport aircraft in the morning A400M landed. In the Syrian capital, she and her French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot want to speak to the new de facto rulers on behalf of EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

Before her departure, the Federal Foreign Minister presented the new rulers in Syria with conditions for resuming relations with Germany and the European Union. “A new political beginning between Europe and Syria, between Germany and Syria is possible,” explained Baerbock. She is coming to Damascus with Barrot and on behalf of the EU “with this outstretched hand, but also with clear expectations of the new rulers.”

“There can only be a new beginning if the new Syrian society gives all Syrians, women and men, regardless of ethnic or religious group, a place in the political process, grants rights and offers protection,” demanded Baerbock. These rights must be safeguarded and “may not be undermined by excessively long deadlines for elections or steps to Islamize the justice or education systems.”

De facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa, leader of the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), recently said that it could take around three years for a new draft constitution to be presented and another year for elections. After more than ten years of civil war, the Arab country is fragmented and divided along sectarian lines. Even after Assad’s fall, rival militias continue to fight for power.