European and Middle Eastern diplomats arrived in Riyadh on Sunday to discuss Syria, where the new authorities are demanding a lifting of international sanctions while foreign capitals wait to judge them on their actions.
A month after the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad on December 8, Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s largest economy, is seeking to increase its influence in Syria, now led by a transitional government dominated by radical Islamists.
Two meetings are planned for Sunday in Riyadh, one between officials from Arab countries and the other also involving representatives of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey as well as the United Nations and the European Union .
The new Syrian power is represented by its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Assaad al-Chaibani, at a time when the transitional authorities led by Ahmad al-Chareh are calling for a lifting of the sanctions hitting their country.
Western powers, notably the United States and the European Union, had imposed sanctions on the government of Bashar al-Assad over the repression of protests in 2011, which sparked the civil war that lasted more than half a year. million dead and displaced millions of Syrians.
Many capitals, including Washington, have said they are waiting to see how the new authorities dominated by the radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, will exercise their power before deciding on a lifting of sanctions.
– “Intelligent approach” –
“Sanctions against those close to Bashar al-Assad, responsible for serious crimes during the civil war, must remain in place,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told journalists in Riyadh on Sunday.
“But Germany is proposing an intelligent approach to sanctions to provide rapid relief to the Syrian population,” who “needs to quickly benefit from the positive benefits of the transition,” she added.
She said her country would provide an additional 50 million euros “for food, emergency shelter and medical care.”
The head of diplomacy of the European Union, Kaja Kallas, also present in Riyadh, declared on Friday that the 27 could “gradually” relax their sanctions “provided that tangible progress is made”, particularly on the protection of minorities .
Several heads of Arab diplomacy arrived at the meeting as did their Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, according to AFP journalists.
The outgoing American Deputy Secretary of State, John Bass, was also expected, after a visit to Turkey where he stressed “the importance of regional stability, of preventing Syria from being used as a base for terrorism and ensure the lasting defeat” of the jihadist group Islamic State, according to the State Department.
Meeting in December in Jordan, the international community defined conditions for dialogue with the new Syrian leaders, notably respect for minorities and women’s rights, as well as the fight against ISIS.
– Saudi influence –
Saudi Arabia, which had severed its ties with Assad’s government in 2012, reestablished its relations with Syria in 2023 and worked for its return to the Arab League, putting an end to its diplomatic isolation.
“This summit sends the message that Saudi Arabia wants to assert itself at the head of regional efforts aimed at supporting the reconstruction of Syria,” underlines researcher Anna Jacobs of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
Riyadh is taking a more cautious stance towards the new Syrian authorities than other countries like Turkey and Qatar, which were the first to reopen their embassies in Damascus, underlines Umer Karim, researcher on Syria at the University of Birmingham.
Nevertheless, Riyadh is “positively observing” the new Syrian leaders and looking to see if they can bring stability and “control the most extreme elements in their ranks”, he added.
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