Damascus (dpa) – Germany’s International Minister Annalena Baerbock and her French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot have been acquired by Syria’s de facto ruler Ahmed al Sharaa. The overseas ministers, who had travelled to Syria on behalf of the EU, had been welcomed within the capital Damascus by the chief of the Islamist insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) on the former palace of long-term ruler Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted round 4 weeks in the past.
Baerbock stated after the talks that her first impression was of a divided society. On the one hand, she stated there was the hope for freedom for everybody after years of civil battle, torture and suppression. On the opposite, there was the priority that this hope may not be fulfilled for girls or for spiritual and ethnic minorities. Baerbock stated that this had been addressed very clearly and that the opposite aspect had signalled that this had been understood.
Al-Sharaa was previously recognized by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al Jolani. The HTS group emerged from the Al-Nusra Entrance, a department of the terrorist community Al-Qaeda. Al-Sharaa had dissociated himself from Al-Qaeda and the terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS). Nevertheless, there are stories to today that the HTS management maintains contact with Al-Qaeda.
Baerbock had already declared at the start of her go to to Syria that she would proceed to guage HTS by their actions, however that Germany couldn’t now go up the chance to assist the folks of Syria at this necessary crossroads.
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