Four weeks after the fall of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and her French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot have travelled to Damascus to strengthen relations between the EU and the transitional government. The new ruler, HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, has said that the country will need four years to create the conditions for free elections.
Open/close all quotes
Turn a blind eye or send a strong signal
Corrriere della Sera comments on the fact that Sharaa shook hands with Barrot but not with Baerbock:
“We don’t yet know whether the Franco-German tandem will view this gender-specific discrimination as a negligible, folkloric and ultimately forgivable expression of customs and traditions that differ from our own. … Or whether it will view the (ommitted) gesture as a betrayal of the ‘clear expectations’ which the German minister had set for her diplomatic mission. In other words, whether Europe will turn a blind eye or make it clear to Syria’s new rulers that if they want to receive our help they cannot refuse to shake hands with women.”
Humility instead of moralising
Europe should review its stance vis-à-vis Syria, Le Temps urges:
“The new strongman in Damascus has asked for four years to pass before elections are held. An eternity and undoubtedly unacceptable even in a country where everything needs to be rebuilt. But if it wants to be useful, Europe must show humility and acknowledge its share of responsibility for the terrible tragedy that the Syrians have suffered. In this extremely complex Syrian puzzle, Europe can only benefit if it resists the double temptation of condescension and moralising that its two representatives in Damascus have sometimes appeared to resort to.”
Little to offer
Naftemporiki comments:
“The crucial question is how seriously the new rulers in Damascus can take a German foreign minister who will probably only be in office for a few more weeks and who is accompanied by a colleague who is brand new to the job and whose country, France, has been plunged into uncertainty. The first two ministers sent by the EU had neither money nor any concrete pledges of aid to offer. Neither they nor Brussels have the power or the means to put pressure on the jihadist leadership. The travel priorities of the Syrian foreign minister show who is most likely to be able to do so: he did not visit Brussels, Berlin or Paris first, but Riyadh and Ankara – two countries that have been supporting jihadist rebels for years.”