Syria’s new leaders are set to meet the French and German foreign ministers in the capital, Damascus, on Friday in one of the highest-level Western diplomatic visits since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad last month.
Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s top diplomat, and Jean-Noël Barrot, the French foreign minister, arrived in Damascus for the first such trip in years on behalf on the European Union, as world powers have begun building ties with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist group that leads the new Syrian government.
Ms. Baerbock and Mr. Barrot were scheduled to meet with Ahmad al-Shara, the group’s leader. The two also visited the notorious Sednaya prison, where Mr. al-Assad’s regime tortured and killed thousands of detainees.
“We are traveling to Damascus today to offer our support, but also with clear expectations of the new rulers,” Ms. Baerbock said in a statement. “A new beginning can only happen if all Syrians, no matter their ethnicity and religion, are given a place in the political process.”
The visits are among a flurry of meetings between rebel leaders and Western officials looking to gradually open channels to the new Syrian authorities as Mr. al-Shara has worked to project a moderate image since taking power.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is still blacklisted as a terrorist group by the United States and the United Nations because of its past ties to Al Qaeda. Mr. al-Shara has called on the international community to remove the designation, sought to reassure minority groups and said he wants to focus on rebuilding Syria after years of civil war.
“The current events demand the lifting of all sanctions on Syria,” he said in a televised interview last month.
Many countries — including the United States — have begun forging ties with the new government. In late December, Barbara Leaf, the senior State Department official for the Middle East, met with Mr. al-Shara in Damascus and told him that Washington would no longer enforce a years-old bounty for his arrest.
On Friday, Mr. Barrot also visited the site of the disused French embassy in Damascus, which was closed in 2012 as the civil war escalated, the French Foreign Ministry said.
The diplomacy comes during a realignment across the Middle East, where Syria has historically been a major power and was for decades an emblem of iron-fisted rule by a single dynasty, opposed by most Syrians. At least six foreign militaries were involved in the country’s nearly 14-year civil war, including Iran, Russia, Turkey and the United States.
Mr. al-Shara’s group is conservative and follows tenets of political Islam, but it broke from Al Qaeda and the Islamic State years ago, and has even fought them. It has administered much of Syria’s Idlib Province, which was held by the opposition to the Assad government, since 2017.
Officials within the group have laid out an ambitious plan for establishing a new government, and rebel leaders have assumed key positions to oversee a transition. A caretaker government is to be installed in consultation with Syrians of all backgrounds, and a committee to create a new Syrian Constitution will be established.
Here are other developments in the region:
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Houthi missile attacks: The Iran-backed Yemeni militia launched a ballistic missile at Israel before dawn on Friday, setting off air-raid sirens across central Israel, including in Jerusalem. The Israeli military said it had intercepted the missile and there were no reports of serious casualties. Israeli fighter jets have flown over 1,000 miles to strike Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen but Israel has struggled to stop the attacks, which have escalated over the past month.
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Israeli strikes in Lebanon: The Israeli military said on Thursday night that it had bombarded Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon as a 60-day truce largely continues to hold. Since the agreement went into effect in late November, Israel has repeatedly bombarded what it says are Hezbollah fighters violating the agreement. Hezbollah has generally refrained from responding militarily. The current cease-fire is set to expire in late January, although the United States and its allies hope it becomes permanent.
