German and French Foreign Ministers Annalena Baerbock and Jean-Noel Barrot have become the first ministers to visit Syria since the HTS seized control.
The two countries have said they want to forge a new relationship with Syria and urged a peaceful transition ahead of their meeting with de facto new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
#germany #france #syria
The two countries have said they want to forge a new relationship with Syria and urged a peaceful transition ahead of their meeting with de facto new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
#germany #france #syria
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00:00German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and her French counterpart have been in
00:04Damascus for a one-day visit on Friday. They're meeting with the de facto rulers
00:10of Syria including Ahmed al-Sharah who's been in charge of the country since the
00:14ousting of Bashar al-Assad at the end of last year. This has been seen as very
00:19much a fact-finding, getting-to-know-you type of visit on behalf of the European
00:25Union as Brussels tries to establish what type of relationship it will have
00:29with the new Syrian rulers going forward. The news of the foreign minister being
00:34in Damascus came out on the same day as the foreign ministry here in Berlin
00:38announced they were looking at plans to offer Syrians with asylum here in
00:43Germany around $1,230 to voluntarily repatriate back to Syria. Syrian refugee
00:50groups here haven't been too happy about the offer saying Germany's now their
00:54home but we can expect this to be a major issue heading into the election
00:59campaign as Germans go to the polls in federal elections on the 23rd of February.