German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
© Alberto Pizzoli/AP/SIPA
Jean-Noël Barrot arrived in Damascus on Friday January 3, followed by his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, for a first official visit to Syria since the fall of the Assad regime. The heads of French and German diplomacy insisted on the need for a peaceful transition. They met the new Syrian leader, Ahmed al-Charaa, at the head of a coalition led by his Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which ousted Bashar al-Assad from power on December 8.
A meeting that caused a lot of talk, since Annalena Baerbock, the German minister, was not entitled to a handshake from the Syrian leader, unlike the head of French diplomacy, who received a slightly warmer welcome. Indeed, Ahmed al-Charaa refrained from shaking the minister’s hand, as is customary in Syria, since shaking hands with a woman is illicit according to a certain reading of Islam.
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Earlier in the day, Annalena Baerbock was also able to make this observation on the airport tarmac, when the reception committee sent by the new Syrian government to receive her did not shake her hand on her arrival either. a revealing gesture for some, but a common practice in countries in the region.
