German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) has unexpectedly arrived in Syria on Friday for a visit.
Together with her French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, she will lead EU talks with representatives of the transitional government formed by the rebels. The two politicians will meet the leader of the Islamist militia, Haya Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Ahmed al-Shara, as well as representatives of civil society.
“Decades of oppression, the atrocities of the Assad regime, and its terrible civil war have inflicted enormous wounds on millions of people in Syria” Baerbock said. “A whole country is marked by this – and is now, at the same time, entitled to hope that the future will be better.”
“We want to support them: in an inclusive peaceful transfer of power, in the reconciliation of society, in the rebuilding, in addition to the humanitarian aid we have provided to the people of Syria all these years without interruption. We all know that this will be a tough road” the foreign minister added.
A new beginning can only be achieved if the new Syrian society grants a place in the political process to all Syrians, men and women, regardless of ethnic or religious group, gives them rights, and offers them protection, Baerbock said.
On December 8, the HTS unexpectedly ended the rule of the long-standing Syrian strongman, Bashar al-Assad. Baerbock and Barrot are the first foreign ministers from an EU state to visit Syria since Assad’s fall.