The German federal government is defending the planned Monday reception of Syria’s transitional president Ahmed al‑Scharaa. “It is important to stay in contact with the Syrian regime” government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius told the dts news agency on Friday.
Kornelius added that the idea of the Chancellor meeting al‑Scharaa for lunch is not an extraordinary honor but simply a matter of courtesy, and he explicitly rejects the claim that al‑Scharaa is a war criminal.
The Kurdish community in Germany has criticized the visit. Al‑Scharaa is a former jihadist leader whose organization, Hayat Tahrir al‑Sham (HTS), was long designated a terrorist group by the United Nations. He is held responsible for numerous human‑rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity. As a former head of the Al‑Nusra Front, al‑Scharaa was accountable for massacres, expulsions and systematic violence against civilians in Syria, affecting especially Kurds of all faiths, as well as Alawites, Druze and Christian communities.